In this 2025 interview, @melanielynskey.bsky.social and Robin Malcolm speak with @stevenewall.bsky.social about NZ true story PIKE RIVER - tragedy, greed, and a 15-year fight for answers and justice.

While many are yet to peg release dates or may shift in the schedule, anticipation rises for this incredible array from Australian filmmakers - as selected by @stephenarussell.bsky.social

As we enjoy our holiday break, Flicks editor Steve Newall shares some of his favourite pieces of the year. Here @roryjdoherty.bsky.social is joined by director Ari Aster to learn more about COVID-era mindf*ck EDDINGTON

As we enjoy our holiday break, Flicks editor Steve Newall shares some of his favourite pieces of the year. This feature looks at how Kathryn Bigelow's #AHouseOfDynamite fits among the top nuke panic thrillers

As we enjoy our holiday break, Flicks editor Steve Newall shares some of his favourite reads of the year. Here, @danielrutledge.bsky.social revisits the #FinalDestination series and the most disgustingly literal ways it messes with the human head.

As we enjoy our break, Flicks editor Steve Newall shares some of his favourite reads of the year. Here, #Babygirl director Halina Reijn gets candid about her film, guilt, sexuality... and Sky Ferreira.

As we enjoy our summer, Flicks editor @stevenewall.bsky.social shares some of his favourite reads of the year. Here, the Philippou brothers join us for an energetic chat about #BringHerBack (which also features in our countdown of our favourite movies of 2025 - link below).

As we enjoy our summer, Flicks editor @stevenewall.bsky.social shares some of his favourite reads of the year. Here, @liammaguren.bsky.social masters a self-assigned task of epic proportions

Another strong year for shows saw a bunch of faves return - and a few of them sadly finish. There were new discoveries to make along the way, too, with a couple of newly-minted classics rising towards the upper echelon of this year’s list.

"My favourite thing about the Avatar movies is how a certain Aotearoa New Zealand-iness positively shines through the screen," writes @domcorry.bsky.social as he sits down with the great James Cameron and Cliff Curtis to talk #Avatar

favorite time of the year, sharing my fave film discoveries with @flicks.bsky.social 💁‍♂️

Nice! I still need to see #IfIhadLegs… and am stoked to see the wonderful #Misericordia in this list. I think my film of the year remains Jafar Panahi’s amazing furious hilarious unsettling and righteous #ItWasJustAnAccident. It’s just SO good.

Ahh! I am going to tell everyone to watch it when it comes out on streaming here in Aotearoa

A highly subjective list? Well, of course it is. That’s what we wanted from the 16 writers who submitted picks, 88 films jockeying for position in this final top 20.

According to Eliza Janssen's latest instalment in The A-to-Z of Trash, XANADU is both more and less than the sum of its crazy parts: rollerskating, Gene Kelly, ELO and Greek mythology.

In an annual Flicks tradition - running for over a decade - Aaron Yap (@naturebean.bsky.social) presents the rarest of rare gems and forgotten movies he’s discovered this year. It's always a trip, out of the dusty vaults and across the decades.

The new season of #Fallout asks brand new questions that could potentially bust the doors wide open for both the future of the show and the games, writes @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social: "It enriches where other adaptations enforce limitations."

At the #AvatarFireAndAsh premiere, @domcorry.bsky.social chats with absurdly talented and successful filmmaker (and New Zealand citizen) James Cameron.

This is a time for shock and grief at a tragedy, outrage at Trump's disgusting overnight response - and also to think about why we loved Rob Reiner so damn much. Here's just one of the many reasons.

Sitting down for conversations with James Cameron and the #AvatarFireAndAsh cast, @domcorry.bsky.social got some tidbits on the future of the filmmaker's original sci-fi action franchise

This is frothy but satisfying festive season viewing: nothing to write home about, but a nice way to spend the time, according to @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social. Front and center is the rare pleasure of seeing Atkinson occupy that Bean-adjacent space.

Somehow, a scuzzy little Reagan-era shocker has spawned one of the most fascinatingly strange franchises in horror history - one that as @danielrutledge.bsky.social writes, has found a genuinely surprising 2025 reinterpretation in a new #SilentNightDeadlyNight

REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND plunges the golden age of spy cinema into a quivering nuclear reactor, says @liammaguren.bsky.social of Shudder's latest gem.

While we all have our favourites, @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social imagines a hypothetical world in which the titles QT listed were the only movies made this century. What order would he put them in? Good question. Here you go…

Though it’s not controversial to say pop stars ooze sex appeal, there’s a palpable mood shift in saying the same about an anthropomorphised antelope, says @liammaguren.bsky.social

@rianjohnson.bsky.social's back-to-basics approach in #WakeUpDeadMan is the moral of the new film in action, writes @amamelia.bsky.social: "Clarity, trust, hard work, and genuine emotion beat pompous pageantry six out of seven days of the week"

#PalmRoyale has doubled down against its critics in season two, and by quite some degree, writes @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social

The moment emerging pop star Oliver walks into an op shop staffed by Théodore Pellerin’s Matthew, a fascinatingly obsessive dance begins. @stephenarussell.bsky.social hears more from the stars of #Lurker and writer-director Alex Russell - as well as highlighting some other suitably stalky viewing.

Udo Kier's first and only post on Twitter 💯

There's plenty to add to your watchlist among this year's NZ Screen Awards winners - including recognition of Sam Neill and the late, great Lee Tamahori.

a new extract from my upcoming book WES ANDERSON: A RETROSPECTIVE is now available on @flicks.bsky.social if you like it you can preorder the book at the bottom (or top) of the article 💛

"I’m not sure I need a feature-length documentary to tell me that Eddie Murphy is funny," says @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social

TRAIN DREAMS is not cerebral or pretentious, says @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social: "In fact it’s beautifully paced and a real pleasure to watch - one of the year’s quiet marvels and one of its best films"

Freshly updated with five new cinemas raising the bar even higher, here are Australia's 25 most beautiful cinemas, as chosen by Cat Woods - movie theatres that have something very special about them to elevate the cinema experience.

This is the worst movie of the year. What it is not, however, is useless, outdated or boring. It may in fact be, for better and for (much, much) worse, the film OF the year.

Even remorseless alien killing machines with hideous faces and slathering maws have daddy issues, says @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social - but there's more going on in #PredatorBadlands too

As @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social writes of #Pluribus: "Perhaps the show’s most interesting tonal achievement is that it’s funny - usually funny-weird, sometimes funny ha-ha - but never in ways that jolt you out of the story or reduce the stakes."

Youthful narcissism manifests in an impossible balance in #ILoveLA, observes @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social: "The need to play model, muse, health queen, businesswoman, queer icon, activist, and psychologist, all while never letting slip that any of it’s a conscious effort."

New four-part Netflix series revolves around two key figures: 20th President of the USA James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon) and Charles J. Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), the man who assassinated him. It's a very entertaining political confection, says @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social

If we thought we could have gotten away with "no regerts" in the headline, well, would've had a go at it... ...and no regerts

Emotional, inspiring, tragic and anger-inducing Aotearoa true story #PikeRiver opens in top spot at the New Zealand box office (read our interview with stars Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm - www.flicks.co.nz/features/pik...).

Our list of the year's best keeps growing and growing.

DOWN CEMETERY ROAD might be cashing in on the success of slow horses, but i dont mind when it’s the sort of show that knows how to have fun

And with television so dominated by dry Weetabix thrillers where everyone talks to each other like an information output machine, #DownCemeteryRoad (and, of course, #SlowHorses before it) feels like a total relief, writes @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social

You definitely already know that STRANGER THINGS is back, but what about all the other, even stranger stuff in store: samurais, a pandemic of happiness, assassins, and Kim Kardashian?

PIKE RIVER adds weight to Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse's voice just when our country and workers need it most. Fittingly strong actors play Anna and Sonya onscreen - two of our country’s very best, Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm - who spoke about the film with @stevenewall.bsky.social

Today’s scattered media environment makes it easy to bypass the suffering of children. As @liammaguren.bsky.social, fresh from seeing #BlackPhone2 observes, today’s horror movies make sure you don’t.

A robust, near-insurmountable argument for the genius of Martin Scorsese, according to @clarisseloughrey.bsky.social - "yet it spends its runtime always teetering on the brink of revelation"

Awesome to see THE WEED EATERS getting the recognition it deserves - as the acclaim continues, we hope the filmmakers remember their first major accolade... its prestigious, earth-shaking ranking as Flicks' #1 film at the NZ International Film Festival: www.flicks.co.nz/features/nzi...

The A-to-Z of Trash reaches V with VAMPIRE'S KISS. Is this even a bad movie? Is it trash, worthy of inclusion in this series? There are plenty of reasons to say yes... but not in Nicolas Cage's performance - he turns a decent-enough film into a momentous acting showcase (and teaches us our ABCs)