The Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival returns for 2021, starting in Auckland from 6-23 May. Other dates include Wellington from 20 May-6 June, Dunedin from 3-13 June, Christchurch from 10-23 June, Havelock North from 10-16 June and New Plymouth from 17-23 June. 

In collaboration with Rialto Cinemas and curatorial partners Clearly & Co, 2021 marks the 10th year of the Film Festival dedicated to stories of architecture and design from around the world. Resene managing director Nick Nightingale notes that over the years the festival has been and continues to be “a veritable feast of architecture and design ideas – stimulating, thought provoking and inspiring.”

This year’s programme includes films from four themes: Architectural legacies; Beyond the visible: celebrating women and stories untold; Impossible projects: design within culture; and Celebration of the decade. Some of the films on our must-see list are Aalto, the story of the women in Alvar Aalto’s life; City Dreamers, a focus on four female architects that have quietly left their mark on urban centres around the world; and Tokyo Ride, which screens on opening night in Auckland and features a look at Tokyo through the eyes of famed Japanese architect Ryue Nishizawa.

The Women of the Bauhaus (screening in conjunction with Charlotte Perriand, Pioneer in the Art of Living) also deserves a special mention in our books for being a female-directed look at the nearly 500 women who studied at the school and “decisively shaped our current view of design”, the event programme notes.

Special events and Q&A sessions with Architectural Designers New Zealand (ADNZ) and the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects (NZILA) are peppered throughout the screenings in various cities. Click here to view the full programme and screening times and buy tickets.