As Auckland concludes, Wellington rolls on. Of the 160+ films we've had the choice of, Li Tao's thoughtful and moving Waves has surprised us most thus far. A reminder that the best documentaries aren't necessarily about big issues, humanitarian plight or hot-button current affairs, the rapport with her subjects is at times astonishing, and a real testament to the power of people on film. Its trump moment is a one-in-a-million: as Father's Day and birthday converge, Ken breaks down as he floods himself with memories of home via a family slideshow on his laptop. Completely oblivious to Li and her camera's presence, it is the kind of distilled human capsule documentary filmmakers pursue all their life, but rarely ever capture. A diamond amongst the rough of nagging leftist docos, this has also been most refreshing entry in the Framing Reality section.

Latest Additions: JACOB POWELL reviews Fabián Bielinsky’s The Aura, the Argentinian filmmaker’s last ever film, as well as reality TV train wreck American Cannibal: The Road to Reality; CALEB STARRENBURG revels in Japanese deadpan rock out Linda Linda Linda; MELODY NIXON considers Saratan’s reality-jolting view of life in Kyrgyzstan; TIM WONG includes his thoughts on A Scanner Darkly, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Linda Linda Linda and The Wild Blue Yonder + new capsule reviews for Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story, Matthew Barney: No Restraint and 58 more in our Festival Form Guide.

Rousing in an entirely non-Mel Gibson way, Ken Loach's Cannes-conquering time capsule of Ireland's tumultuous twenties is a fiercely determined statement for which Iraq is really only a stone's throw away. Political propaganda or not, The Wind That Shakes the Barley isn't the pointed allegory of a childish Lars von Trier; rather, it is a stern reminder that history continues to repeat itself. In troubled times, it is little surprise that the festival's opening night films have for the past two years agitated and provoked. That pockets of the audience were seen scurrying to the exit is no less than a stamp of approval.

Congratulations to our Wellington winners of The New World giveaway, J. Mussgnug and B. Sansom. Your double passes are in the mail.

Latest Additions: CATHERINE BISLEY reviews Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, an unfilmable film; MEI-LAM WONG experienced “fps”, Auckland's Live experimental cinema programme at the legendary Civic Winter Garden; TIM WONG caught Naked Childhood, Fearless and Shortbus on the Wellington festival's opening weekend; BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM liked Three Times (unlike certain others); MUBARAK ALI interprets Abel Ferrara's Mary; CALEB STARRENBURG compares Napolean Dynamite to The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang; JACOB POWELL channels his own taste for coffee and childhood trauma in Black Gold and Keane + new capsule reviews for Princess, The Method and more in our Festival Form Guide.

For a film-within-a-film about the making of a film, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story doesn't manage to dethrone Irma Vep, Lumière's all-time favourite movie about making movies. But we haven't had as much fun since. Michael Winterbottom, a ridiculously prolific and erratic director, turns his latest film into a reflection of behind the scene featurettes, production debacles, celebrity arrogance (this is pretty much the same Steve Coogan from Coffee and Cigarettes), and a thousand other tid bits usually destined for the extra disc of a deluxe special edition DVD. It is extremely digressive, shambolic for the most part, and rather like a hall of mirrors – and yet dastardly entertaining. Coogan upside-down in a giant see-thru womb says as much. For UK TV fiends, the familiar faces are in ample supply: among many, Stephen Fry, Dylan Moran of Black Books, Ashley Jensen of Extras, and everyone's favourite squeaky Scottish lady, Shirley Henderson.

Also, we've extended our ticket giveaway to The New World for Wellingtonians until the 24th. [Enter Here]

Latest Additions: CALEB STARRENBURG goes back to school in Brick; DAVID LEVINSON has words with Laurent Cantet's Heading South, John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus and Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly; both JACOB POWELL and NICHOLAS BUTLER check out Homegrown: Works on Film [a] [b]; TIM WONG learns more about manic depressives in It's Only Talk; + new capsule reviews for Police Beat, Pulse and more in our Festival Form Guide.

The 38th Telecom Auckland International Film Festival is officially underway, with festival patrons clambering for tickets, and late-comers apparently being turned away in last-minute disappointment. You have been warned. Congratulations to our two Auckland winners of double passes to The New World, J. Mcrae and S. Bulley; Wellington winners will be drawn July 24th. You can still enter [here]

Latest Additions: IAN CHRISTOPHER feels the heat in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth; headaches are par for the course in the extraordinary Mind Game, the year's most mentally-exhausting animated feature according to CALEB STARRENBURG; TIM GRAY submits his third installment of Ticket Stub Scrawlings, taking in Keane, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and A Bittersweet Life from Ant Timpson's That's Incredible Cinema! programme; TIM WONG samples some of the early competition in the Homegrown short film programme, and Mitsuo Yanahigamchi’s zany and nimble comedy-of-filmmaking, Who’s Camus Anyway?

Entries for Radio Active's Handle the Jandal DIY NZ Music Video Competition for 2006 are currently open, and close on August 1st – which leaves budding musicians and filmmakers alike less than a month to scrounge together a clip. The contest is restricted to non-funded music videos by New Zealand musicians only. Categories vary, and will be judged (along with a supreme winner) as part of an awards ceremony to be held in Wellington later in the year. Download the entry form here, or see flyer below for further info.

Terrence Malick's The New World – only his fourth feature in a resume that stretches back to the seventies with Badlands and Days of Heaven – craves to seen projected large, and stands as one of the festival's must-see movies, particularly on the enormous Embassy and Civic screens. Courtesy of the Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals, we have two double passes to The New World to giveaway, to both Auckland and Wellington screenings. A simple question and email to us will suffice. Entries close soon. Click on the following link to enter....[Win Festival Tickets]

Latest Additions: BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reviews Phillipe Garrel's nod to revolution Regular Lovers, plus writes on quirky French screwball comedy Gentille and music documentary loudQUIETloud: A Film about the Pixies; JACOB POWELL delves into the hypocrisy, irony and downright stupidity of the American film industry's MPAA in This Film is Not Yet Rated.

The Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals' hospitality extends once again this year, with a generous invitational of local and international filmmakers attending screenings of their films. The major international guest this time around is one Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Crimson Gold), whose latest film Offside exhibits in all four main centres. Filmmakers in person have yet to be confirmed for Christchurch and Dunedin, but can be sampled for Auckland and Wellington respectively.

Latest Additions: CALEB STARRENBURG tallies the body count in Kim Jee-woon's violent and energetic A Bittersweet Life; BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM revisits Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados, a powerful and disturbing classic of cinema; TIM WONG writes enthusiastically about this year's Out of the Past programme and potentially the festival's best film, The Death of Mr Lazarescu; MUBARAK ALI juggles the neo-realism and quasi-documentary reality of In Between Days, Offside and Oxhide.

For the uninitiated still browsing the programme or mulling over whether to even go, we suggest perusing the festival's own Tour Guides, with neatly categorised lists ranging from cosy "Date Movies", to hardcore "Revenge" pictures, to urgent "Activist" films (although some might argue the deluge of leftist docos in recent years have had a dulling effect). Our own pre-festival picks – the editors' and/or otherwise – may also be of interest.

Latest Additions: BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM considers the rare beauty of Iraq in Fragments; CATHERINE BISLEY renews her passion for tutus and Tchaikovsky with Ballets Russes; SIMON SWEETMAN crashes Dave Chappelle's Block Party, this year's most affirmative, rambunctious film; plus, 21 capsule reviews in our Festival Form Guide, including new entries for Loulou, The Passenger, Van Gogh, and The Death of Mr Lazarescu.