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MFF2024

Māoriland Film Festival

20 - 24 MARCH
Ōtaki, Aotearoa

Aotearoa’S International Indigenous Film Festival

Kia Tau Te Rongomau

Let there be peace

5

5

Days of Indigenous Cinema

130+

130+

INDIGENOUS NATIONS

168

168

FILMS

Each March the Indigenous world comes together in Ōtaki, Aotearoa (New Zealand) to celebrate Indigenous screen storytelling at Māoriland Film Festival, the largest Indigenous film festival in the Southern Hemisphere.

Located on New Zealand’s Kāpiti Coast, Ōtaki is a vibrant seaside town where Māori culture and language thrives. Māoriland is celebrated for its manaakitanga and community spirit. It is a place where creatives come to heal. 

MFF2024

Opening Night

WORLD PREMIERE

THE RECIPROCITY PROJECT

Facing a climate crisis, the Reciprocity Project embraces Indigenous value systems that have bolstered communities since the dawn of humanity. To heal, we must recognise that we are in relationship with Earth, a place that was in balance until the Industrial Age. The second season of this project invites learning from time-honoured and current ways of being across seven Indigenous communities, including the mountainous Tayal homelands of Taiwan, the nightless nights and deep snows of Sámi Nation in Finland, and the forested Limba homelands in Sierra Leone.
 
The Season Two storytellers and community partners are creating projects in response to a question: “What does a return to land, language, practices, and reciprocal relationships mean to you and your community?”
 

Māoriland Keynote Address

Kia Tau Te Rongomau

The Māoriland Keynote address is a personal and historical perspective given by a prominent Māori filmmaker. Past keynote speakers were Tainui Stephens, Lawrence Makoare, Larry Parr, Julian and Mabelle Dennison, Rawiri Paratene, Heperi and Awatea Mita, Temuera Morrison, Rena Owen, Waihoroi Shortland and Libby Hakaraia.

Highly recognised Māori artists have responded to the theme of this year’s MFF Kia Tau Te Rongomau with captivating work in the Ōtaki township. The Māoriland Film Festival Arts Installation project is curated by Rachael Rākena, an Associate Professor and celebrated Kāi Tahu/Ngā Puhi video installation artist.

The installations feature the exceptional works of Regan Balzer (Te Arawa, Ngāti Ranginui), Tāme iti (Ngāi Tūhoe), Ngataiharuru Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa), and Johnson Witehira (Tamahaki, Ngāi Tū-te-auru). We are immensely proud to have these esteemed artists as the MFF2024 Keynote Address. 

The project is made possible through the generous support of an Arts Grant from Creative New Zealand.

MFF2024

Closing Night Film

Frybread Face
& Me

It’s 1990. Benny is a Native American boy growing up in San Diego who plays with dolls and listens to Fleetwood Mac. Everything Benny thinks he knows about himself and his family is turned upside down when his parents force him to spend the summer at his Grandma Lorraine’s sheep ranch on the reservation in Arizona. There, he meets his cousin Dawn— AKA Frybread Face, a pudgy 11-year-old vagabond and tough-as-nails tomboy. Benny has never met anyone like her, and he is equally intimidated and impressed by her knowledge of Navajo language and tradition. Together, Benny and Fry create a memorable summer.

Tickets

No door sales are available at screening venues. 
You must have a pre-purchased ticket to enter.

Māoriland Hub

68 Main Street Ōtaki,
Monday – Saturday 11 am – 4 pm
Festival Week March 15 – 19: 9 am – 8:30 pm

Films

iTicket 
0508 iTICKET (484-253)

Industry Passes

Pricing

Screenings

Choose your price
From
$8
To
$20

Māoriland Red Carpet Party

Choose your price
From
$35
To
$70

Māoriland Rangatahi Film Festival

Choose your price
SCHOOL ENTRY
KOHA
GENERAL
$8-20

Industry Passes

PRE-SALE
$200
GENERAL (MARCH 10)
$275