Cannes… One Mountain Too High

The Cannes film festival is over for another year. And it’s another year where no New Zealand film got into Official Competition, Critics Week, Director’s Fortnight, or the short film competition.

The last NZ feature in Cannes was Cristine Jeff’s Rain 24 years ago, in 2001. Zia Mandviwalla’s Night Shift was the last short film in competition at Cannes in 2012.

Looking across the ditch to Australia, we can see that they have continuing success at Cannes with features. From 2001 – 2025 according to Screen Australia, the Aussies had 22 feature films at Cannes in either Official Competition, Critic’s Week or Director’s Fortnight. On the shorts side, they have been less successful with only 3 shorts chosen since 2012.

Of those 22 features according to IMDB Pro/Box Office Mojo numbers, it seems that for Australian theatrical:

• 6 did not get a release
• 3 earned less than NZ$500k
• 2 earned less than NZ$1 mil.
• 2 earned between NZ$1 – 2 mil.
• 1 earned $2 – 3 mil.
• 2 earned $3 – 4 mil.
• 3 earned between NZ$4 – 5 mil.
• 2 earned $6 – 8 mil.
• 1 film releasing in June 2025 has no B.O. yet

It’s safe to say that those that did not get a release were strong arthouse films, while a good number of those with high box office returns were horror/thriller, with the others of various genres from drama to indigenous. So a pretty wide spread of films that achieved from no Australian box office success to great results.

A quick scan of two other countries with similar populations to NZ—Denmark and Ireland—reveals that Denmark has had five features in competition at Cannes since 2001, while Ireland has had six.

If we look more closely at the NZ films that have been selected at Cannes we see:

1982 The Scarecrow, Sam Pillsbury, Directors’ Fortnight

1984 Vigil, Vincent Ward, Official Competition

1987 Ngāti, Barry Barclay, International Critics’ Week

1988 The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, Vincent Ward, Official Competition

1993 The Piano, Jane Campion, Official Competition

1998 Memory & Desire, Niki Caro, International Critics’ Week

2001 Rain, Christine Jeffs, Directors’ Fortnight

So why don’t NZ features get into Cannes anymore?

Do we lack the auteur directorial talent? Is NZFC too risk averse when it comes to script development? Does a market and cast-driven approach spoil our chances? Are we lacking in boldness and originality? Are our films not good enough on an international filmmaking level?

It would seem that it’s a combination of a number of these things, according to a couple of very experienced film industry practitioners whose opinions I value.

We certainly are very capable at climbing mountains in this country. It just seems that the cinematic peak of Cannes proves difficult to scale for NZ films except for the very few, now quite some time ago.

But we live in hope.

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 18 June 2025