Returning for its 15th year, the 2026 Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival has arrived in cinemas with a bold new offering of eclectic titles curated from both within New Zealand and across the globe, and this year’s selection delivers a compelling storytelling journey that invites audiences to step into bold creative worlds, and to meet the visionary artists who bring them to life.
This year’s programme engages both a mix of local and international works spanning architecture, design, art, photography, and landscape. With each film being an invitation to experience creativity not as something distant, but as a tactile, immediate, and deeply human experience.
Beginning as a boutique offering in 2012 in partnership with Auckland’s Rialto Cinema, the Architecture and Design Film Festival has now grown into a nationwide creative event, and this year’s 15th season is a very special release. Now screening across 13 regions and 14 cinemas, the festival has cemented its place as a cornerstone of New Zealand’s design calendar and has also earned recognition as one of the largest architecture and design film festivals globally.
This year’s festival has been shaped around a thematic focus of innovation, sustainability, and artistic expression, explored through curated strands such as Building for the Community, The Domestic Experience, Light as Form, and Hand-Crafted Worlds.
Some of the standouts of this year’s festival include:
A lavish feature presentation that examines the journey of infamous architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen (Claes Bang), and the construction of Paris’ Grande Arche, this intimate French production is a narrative of ambition and artistic integrity, and it will wash over you with a feeling of utter beauty and the heavy dramatic swings that entangle creative passions. Director Stéphane Demoustier and noted Danish actor Claes Bang bring an incredible introspection to the form and workings of the creative mind, and in the character of Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, we find a genius creative forced to work within the limitations of others, and how this affects his very soul.
Deeply moving, and with an incredible layer of cinematic flair, not to mention some of the most gorgeous cinematography and imagery you’re likely to see all year, The Great Arch is a brilliant story of what the creative mind has to endure within the modern world, and how the cost of ambition must sometimes be paid in full.
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Hamilton Gardens
Painting a moving story of Hamilton’s world-renowned Gardens, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Hamilton Gardens is a moving tribute to artistry, nature, and the soul of what a garden should be. Audiences are given a rare insight into how this incredible place and its lavish, awe-inspiring gardens have been created and how they continue to develop, with new concepts and ideas coming to light day by day. Moving and enchanting, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Hamilton Gardens is a documentary that will have you mesmerised by its dream-like imagery and the beautiful gardens revealed before you.
The Harvard 5: A Story of Love, Architecture, and a Design Revolution
Offering a glimpse into a truly one of a kind creative movement, and the birth of American Modernist Architecture, The Harvard 5: A Story of Love, Architecture, and a Design Revolution is an informative and invigorationg documentary that takes audiences into the achievements of a rarified group of architects who choose to break the rules and follow their bliss in the most unlikely place, colonial New Canaan, Connecticut, with the results being utterly world changing. A story of both the creative mind and the passing of time, The Harvard 5 is a celebration of the voice of artistry and the movement it inspired, and this very hip, innovative watch will pull audiences right in.
Curated by Yasmine Ganley and Sara Black in partnership with Rialto Cinemas, the festival maintains a strong commitment to both international excellence and homegrown storytelling. As Ganley notes, this year’s programme blends dynamic feature films with a rich selection of documentaries and shorts, while continuing to champion New Zealand filmmakers.
Delivering inspiration and curiosity, the Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival is a unique cinematic experience, something to be savoured by audiences across its season from April 30 to June 3.
Image: Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival
