The 2026 New Zealand International Film Festival is just around the corner for another year, running from July 29 to September 9.

The festival features over 100 films, from acclaimed international directors to Kiwi auteurs alike.

Entertainment correspondent Steve Newall outlined his picks.

LISTEN ABOVE

The 2026 New Zealand International Film Festival is just around the corner for another year, running from July 29 to September 9.
The festival features over 100 films, from acclaimed international directors to Kiwi auteurs alike.
Entertainment correspondent Steve Newall outlined his picks.
LISTEN ABOVE

News, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and entertainment – we’ve got your Sunday morning listening covered with The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on Newstalk ZB.

The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Steve Newall: entertainment correspondent speaks ahead of this year's NZ International Film Festival

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/8a038516-77e7-4129-8427-b48401863dd3/transcript

American soul singer Macy Gray's been releasing successful albums and topping charts since 1999 - beginning with the release of the hit 'I Try'.

27 years later she's sold over 25 million albums, she’s got a Grammy, she’s got Brit awards, she's released 10 albums and she’s still going with another due later this year. 

She's also set to bring her six-date tour to New Zealand later this year. 

"It's had to describe music, it's a little bit of an experiment for me...I'm doing everything that I really, really want to do, saying the things I really want to say, so it's more of a pure project than my ones in the past, and it's been a big learning experience for me." 

LISTEN ABOVE

American soul singer Macy Gray's been releasing successful albums and topping charts since 1999 - beginning with the release of the hit 'I Try'.
27 years later she's sold over 25 million albums, she’s got a Grammy, she’s got Brit awards, she's released 10 albums and she’s still going with another due later this year.&nbsp;
She's also set to bring her six-date tour to New Zealand later this year.&nbsp;
"It's had to describe music, it's a little bit of an experiment for me...I'm doing everything that I really, really want to do, saying the things I really want to say, so it's more of a pure project than my ones in the past, and it's been a big learning experience for me."&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE

Macy Gray: American soul singer talks upcoming New Zealand tour

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/fd246b0e-d1bc-4d7d-894f-b4850017d26b/transcript

Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner's made a name for herself in iconic roles like Alias, 30 Going on 30, Daredevil and Juno, and she's attached herself to a new, star-studded Hayu project.

Five Star Weekend is based on the Elin Hilderbrand novel, and also stars Chloë Sevigny, Regina Hall, D’Arcy Carden and Gemma Chan as a group of friends brought together by a grieving food influencer.

Garner says the 'complexities and layers' of female friendship are hard to find on screen, but this project has more depth than it appears.

"It just so happens that we have this great source material from Elin Hilderbrand, this beautiful book that surprises you on every turn. You think - oh, it's a beach read, and then you read it and you just go - there's a reason this is an all-time best-seller." 

LISTEN ABOVE

Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner's made a name for herself in iconic roles like Alias, 30 Going on 30, Daredevil and Juno, and she's attached herself to a new, star-studded Hayu project.
Five Star Weekend is based on the Elin Hilderbrand novel, and also stars Chloë Sevigny, Regina Hall, D’Arcy Carden and Gemma Chan as a group of friends brought together by a grieving food influencer.
Garner says the 'complexities and layers' of female friendship are hard to find on screen, but this project has more depth than it appears.
"It just so happens that we have this great source material from Elin Hilderbrand, this beautiful book that surprises you on every turn. You think - oh, it's a beach read, and then you read it and you just go - there's a reason this is an all-time best-seller."&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE

Jennifer Garner: Hollywood actress on her new Hayu project, Five Star Weekend

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/656fa81e-91b0-4dc6-a3c8-b4850011d2a4/transcript

The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary. This book won the Allen and Unwin fiction award, which is a hugely contested New Zealand fiction prize. A Dad takes his 3 year old boy to the beach and leaves him in the car while he unloads fishing gear to a site some distance away - and when he returns to the car, his son is gone. He’s been found by a woman who has suffered the loss of children and can’t believe her luck - that there’s a young, seemingly abandoned boy who she can take home and into whom she can pour all her love. But of course the situation is not that straight forward, which she soon discovers as the search for him grows ever more intense.

It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell. Jane Trevally is newly divorced and one night agrees to go home with a man she’s only just met - but she gets a bad feeling in his house and runs away. Years later, she finds herself on the trail of a missing girl, and traces that girl back to the same house in which she found herself 25 years ago - a place with a dark atmosphere and sinister secrets. As she investigates what might have happened, she realises that, if she hadn’t left that place, it could have been her. 

LISTEN ABOVE

The Nowhere Boy by Anne Cleary. This book won the Allen and Unwin fiction award, which is a hugely contested New Zealand fiction prize. A Dad takes his 3 year old boy to the beach and leaves him in the car while he unloads fishing gear to a site some distance away - and when he returns to the car, his son is gone. He’s been found by a woman who has suffered the loss of children and can’t believe her luck - that there’s a young, seemingly abandoned boy who she can take home and into whom she can pour all her love. But of course the situation is not that straight forward, which she soon discovers as the search for him grows ever more intense.
It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell. Jane Trevally is newly divorced and one night agrees to go home with a man she’s only just met - but she gets a bad feeling in his house and runs away. Years later, she finds herself on the trail of a missing girl, and traces that girl back to the same house in which she found herself 25 years ago - a place with a dark atmosphere and sinister secrets. As she investigates what might have happened, she realises that, if she hadn’t left that place, it could have been her.&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE

Whitcoulls Recommends: The Nowhere Boy and It Could Have Been Her

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/20b0560f-604a-4de1-ad9c-b485000cc8c2/transcript

Steve Newall: entertainment correspondent speaks ahead of this year's NZ International Film Festival

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