FAQ

When does the Festival announce the programme for 2011?

Printed programmes and full website programme information will be available three weeks prior to the Festival opening. Prior to this date, information about confirmed films will be available on the website as it comes to hand. Advance title confirmations will be provided to My Festival subscribers, fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter.

How can I submit a film?

You should read the entry regulations and then fill out the entry form which is available online here. Any queries about submitting a film can be made by emailing our Assistant Programmer Michael McDonnell.

When is the deadline for film entries?

In October 2011, we will open the call for submissions for the 2012 festival.

The approximate deadline for international submissions will be late March 2012. And for New Zealand and Australia, the deadline will be late April 2012.

 

Is there any fee to enter a film?

There is no fee for entry to the New Zealand International Film Festival.

Why doesn't the Festival offer a discount pass to regular patrons?

We cannot offer a discount pass because we often pay the sales agents, producers or distributors of the films we are playing an agreed percentage of the box office. This requires a strict accounting for the exact income pertaining to each session. Festivals operating pass systems must offer large fixed rentals or other, even more expensive incentives (first class airfares etc) to sales agents, producers or distributors to make their films available.

Our funding, which is derived largely (more than 90%) from ticket sales does not make this possible. There are no tax-subsidised Film Festival tickets in New Zealand! We are able to run an extremely expensive Festival here thanks to a measure of sponsorship, and an audience prepared to pay normal movie admission prices for what we hope will be a better than normal movie experience.

Why are some films screened at the Auckland and Wellington legs of the Festival, but not at any other location?

Please be assured that our choices are not restricted by our estimates of the tastes of filmgoers in each location, but by the very limited availability of film prints. Many of the prints imported for the Auckland and Wellington are required for screening at the Festival that follows immediately in Melbourne. There the owners can reasonably expect more rewarding ongoing returns than in a smaller New Zealand city. Nonetheless we believe that our smaller cities are served with far stronger Film Festival programmes than most, maybe any, cities of comparable size in Australia, Canada, the US or the UK.

Increasingly niche cinemas in the smaller centres are able to fill the gaps, picking up films that have become available for release in New Zealand as a result of their popularity at the Auckland and Wellington legs of the Festival. Discerning audiences throughout the country benefit from the work of the Festivals and Auckland and Wellington audiences who have met the substantial establishing costs of so many of the films that we import in the first place. If you succeed in having some of the films you're missing in your local Festival screened locally in the year that follows, then we'll be as pleased about that as you are.

Why are there only one or two sessions of most films? Why aren't there extra screenings of some sold-out films?

Often our screening agreements negotiated with the films sales agents, producers or distributors stipulate the number of screenings that their films can have in the Festival. Most Festival entrants hope that the Festival screenings will prove the first of many screenings for their film in New Zealand. They are often nervous that potential local distributors or exhibitors will resist taking up films that have already had multiple Festival screenings.

Why are some very popular films screened in small venues and not in the larger cinemas?

We cannot show every film on our programme in every theatre, because every theatre is equipped differently. Only selected venues meet the requirements for approved archival screenings, for example. Sometimes films on video can only be screened in smaller venues which have the correct equipment. In cases where such films prove to be very popular we will usually be able to programme more screenings to anticipate audience demand.

Why doesn't the Festival in Auckland and Wellington sell its own tickets?

Ticketing the Festival in Auckland and Wellington needs to be the work of a single ticketer and is a far more complex undertaking than many patrons imagine. The multiple, separately owned venues, several of them quite small; the 150+ different "events"; the high volume of sales and low ticket prices; and the accounting needs of the many participants; all these factors make us an imposing challenge for any ticketer.

We have established, through annual negotiation, that Ticketek's service is currently the most effective and affordable in New Zealand to tackle the Film Festival. We remain open to offers from Ticketek's competitors, but to date no other bidder for the job has come close, and several have backed off entirely on reading the brief. An attempt to involve the services of a second ticketer in Auckland in 2008 was an unmitigated disaster. We certainly do not have the resources at our disposal to develop, furnish and staff a ticketing service of our own.

We wish that Ticketek's internet service was much better suited to the Festival in pricing (particularly for single ticket purchases) and effectiveness. Ticketek are well aware of our disappointment in this area. If you would like to email us with any specific problems with Ticketek's service then we will pass those observations on to them. 

Why is there a ticketing fee on tickets sold over the counter?

Any ticket you ever buy for anything incorporates an element of ticketing cost. We could absorb the 50c we pay Ticketek into the cost of the ticket, but we'd need to raise our ticket price by more than 50c to nett Ticketek their fee: venue operators and film owners often receive an agreed percentage of the ticket price. Our ticket price plus booking fee rarely exceeds a regular movie ticket price. 

Why can't I select my own seats on Ticketek's website?

It is possible to select seats at the counter or when making phone bookings. The inability to select seats on the internet is the Festival's choice, not Ticketek's. It is a concession to producers/sales agents who have provided their brand new films to us and are wary of making ticket sales information readily available on the web to others in the trade while their commercial options are fresh.