Film lovers around the country will be heading to the cinema as the Film Society’s 2011 season begins.

A richly eclectic programme of special screenings, classic features, documentaries and contemporary cinema from home and abroad begins in March at film societies across New Zealand.

This year’s highlight is Pedro Costa’s Fontainhas Trilogy:

“One of the most important artists on the international film scene today, Portuguese director Pedro Costa has been steadily building an impressive body of work since the late eighties. And these are the three films that put him on the map: spare, painterly portraits of battered, largely immigrant lives in the slums of Fontainhas, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Lisbon. Hypnotic, controlled works, Ossos, In Vanda’s Room and Colossal Youth confirm Costa as a provocative new cinematic poet, one who locates beauty in the most unlikely of places.” – GreenCine

“These fabulously beautiful and innovative films also show Costa’s progress as an artist,” says Andrea Haines, president of the Federation of Film Societies. “His approach becomes much more democratic and direct: from a full crew and facilities, he moves to working with a single digital camera and a sound recorder.”

Pedro Costa’s work has been virtually unseen in this country. His documentary Ne change rien is the only film of his to have screened here, showing at the 2010 New Zealand International Film Festival.

“Paradoxically, the most powerful way to experience these intimate, poetic films is on the big screen, in a darkened cinema, in the company of others,” says Andrea. 

The celebration of the big screen experience continues with the gloriously cinematic features The New World and Russian Ark, and a showcase of contemporary films by women directors Lynne Ramsay, Kelly Reichardt and Sarah Watt, all screening in 35mm prints.

Award-winning documentaries from Germany and Canada are also on the programme, along with anime from Japan, international classics and early work by the great Ernst Lubitsch.

New Zealand films include the full-length version of the late Merata Mita’s powerful anti-Springbok Tour documentary Patu! and a selection of recent NZ shorts.

A pair of supremely stylish French films noirs and a retrospective starring the marvellous French actress Isabelle Huppert are among the treats in store.

“The Film Society takes you further into film. We offer a wide-ranging programme from accomplished and emerging filmmakers around the world who are pushing the boundaries. You’ll see films you may never have heard of – and be surprised how much you enjoy them. Film Society is a place for people to share the big screen experience. And we offer exceptional value – exciting cinema at an incredibly low price,” says Andrea.