Architecture & Design Film Festival Comes To Wanaka

The Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival is coming to Wānaka for the very first time, bringing a curated mini four-day festival to the iconic Cinema Paradiso from 9 to 12 October.

Wānaka audiences can experience a selection of the 2025 festival’s most celebrated titles – the best of the best from one of the largest architecture and design film festivals in the world:

E.1027 - EILEEN GRAY AND THE HOUSE BY THE SEA – THURSDAY 9 OCTOBER, 7PM

Eileen Gray’s villa, E.1027, on the Côte d’Azur is considered a milestone in architectural history. Enjoy a cinematic journey into the mind of Eileen Gray, offering a story about the power of female expression and men’s desire to control it.

SCHINDLER SPACE ARCHITECT - FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER, 7PM

A true original, Austrian-born and educated R.M. Schindler laid the foundation for what is now known as the Californian style of indoor-outdoor living. This documentary explores the bohemian genius of the highly acclaimed Schindler House in Los Angeles, investigating Schindler’s philosophy of Space Architecture, while also raising questions about domestic architecture as a living entity that can shape culture and humanity.

SITTING STILL – SATURDAY 11 OCT, 4:30PM

Get inside the mind of distinguished artist, scholar, author, and one of the most renowned and significant landscape architects practicing in the world today, Laurie Olin, whose concerns have defined his life’s work: urbanisation, a lost connection to nature, economic marginalisation, and the grave necessity of humanity in design. In a time when global values increasingly reflect profit over people, Olin’s vision has always been to create a more democratic and egalitarian society through healthy, shared public space.

ARTHUR ERICKSON: BEAUTY BETWEEN THE LINES – SUNDAY 12 OCTOBER, 4:30PM

Known for his visionary designs and groundbreaking architectural philosophy, Erickson’s work profoundly shaped the modernist landscape as one of the 20th century’s most captivating architects. Through intimate interviews, archival footage and a look at his most famous creations, the film reveals the delicate balance Erickson maintained between his creative genius and the challenges of his personal life, reflecting on the human experience of creativity, ambition and the price of greatness.

Founded in 2012, the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival has become a key cultural event in Aotearoa New Zealand and is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Tickets are available in cinema and online through the Cinema Paradiso website.

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