It's fantastic to see films by WIFT NZ members will be screening at the 75th Edinburgh International Film Festival, which this year runs from 12 -20 August 2022.
Whina and Nude Tuesday will have their European premieres at the festival while Juniper and Millie Lies Low will premiere for UK audiences. Independently funded short film, fire in the water, fire in the sky from filmmaker Mīria George will also screen in Edinburgh, in the New Shorts: On Leaving strand. This collection of short films explores the theme of migration, from the anticipation of the move, through the physical journeying, to the psychological toll exacted and the consequences and complications of finding yourself somewhere else.
New Zealand-Australia co-production Nude Tuesday will screen as the Central Gala film. Directed by Armagan Ballantyne, produced by Emma Slade, Virginia Whitwell and Nick Batzias and based on a screenplay by Jackie van Beek from a story devised by herself and Ballantyne, Nude Tuesday is spoken entirely in an improvised, gibberish-esque language with subtitles created by British comedian and writer Julia Davis (Camping).
Whina will screen in The Chamber programme which features quality arthouse for the culturally conscious. Directed by Paula Whetu Jones and James Napier Robertson, written by Paula Whetu Jones, James Napier Robertson and James Lucas and produced by Matthew Metcalfe and Tainui Stephens, Whina is currently screening in New Zealand cinemas where it has made over $1M at the New Zealand box office.
Juniper, written and directed by Matthew Saville and produced by Desray Armstrong and Angela Littlejohn and Millie Lies Low, directed by Michelle Savill, written by Michelle Savill and Eli Kent and also produced by Armstrong and Littlejohn will both screen in the festival’s Heartbreakers programme, featuring friends, family, lovers and cheaters.
Photo: Still shot from Millie Lies Low. Ana Scotney as Millie.