KEY POINTS:
Celebrating its 40th year in Auckland, the New Zealand International Film Festival arrives on the back of two successful years, with a bigger, broader and better programme. It's an all-too-rare treat to see documentaries in a cinema, and this year's line- up is overflowing with attention-grabbing examples: Man on Wire tells the story of Phillipe Petit, who illegally traversed a wire suspended between the World Trade Centre buildings in 1974.
Oscar-winning director Errol Morris (The Fog of War) returns with Standard Operating Procedure, which examines the controversial photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison. Every frame of Earth, on the other hand, is a wonder to behold - it's a stunningly epic portrait of life on our planet and functions as a cinematic companion piece to the acclaimed BBC series Planet Earth. A more rousing film than The King of Kong simply does not exist.
It illuminates the small but passionate world of retro video gamers and, in particular, the battle between two men to beat each other's high score on Donkey Kong. This hilarious crowd-pleaser plays in the festival's incredibly strange section, which also includes my number one pick: Timecrimes, a Spanish thriller with the precision tension of a Swiss clock.
Another Spanish film, the ghost story The Orphanage, arrives on a wave of acclaim, and credits critical darling Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) as a producer. Other notable films include late confirmation Gomorrah, an unromantic take on the Mafia.
Contemporary drama The Visitor (from the director of The Station Agent) has been quietly making waves in a limited release in the United States. And it would be a crime to miss the Michael Curtiz/Errol Flynn 1938 classic The Adventures of Robin Hood - the original action blockbuster - on the big screen.
Pick up a programme - this year in a new magazine format - for further information on the enormous breadth of cinematic delights on offer.
* New Zealand International Film Festivals: Auckland: July 10-27; Wellington: July 18-August 3. Subsequently in all the main centres. (For more information go to www.nzff.co.nz)
