Nau mai ki te Wairarapa Film Festival
Welcome to the Wairarapa Film Festival
Wairarapa Film Festival celebrates local film, art, and storytelling that connect people with their place. Through curated screenings, workshops, masterclasses, and our filmmaking competition, we bring communities together through the power of visual storytelling and creative expression. We honour the storytellers who have shaped Aotearoa’s cinematic landscape and celebrate the emerging voices carrying that legacy forward.
Wairarapa has been home to acclaimed filmmakers, artists, and storytellers, including Ramai Hayward, Vincent Ward, Barry Barclay, Jemaine Clement, Annie Collins, Jamie Selkirk, Sir Peter Jackson, and James Cameron. Join us as we celebrate the region’s rich creative legacy — and the vibrant future of film and storytelling in our region.
Wairarapa Film Festival Celebrated at the Wairarapa Awards 2025
Wairarapa Film Festival was named a Finalist in the Tranzit Coachlines Vibrant Category at the Wairarapa Business Awards 2025.
The Vibrant Award celebrates leaders in Wairarapa’s events and tourism sector — recognising those who deliver exceptional visitor experiences, spark creativity, and help grow our region’s reputation for outstanding, unforgettable events.
Since launching in 2021, Wairarapa Film Festival has celebrated local film, art, and storytelling that connect people with their place. Through our festival programming, we bring audiences and creatives together to share stories that inspire, move, and create meaningful connection.
We are honoured to be named alongside fellow finalists, the Carterton Daffodil Festival and the Wairarapa Balloon Society, and we congratulate the Carterton Daffodil Festival on their win. Thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey!
See Our Stars — in the Sky and on the Big Screen
As Wairarapa is named one of Lonely Planet’s Top 25 Experiences in the World for 2026, it’s the perfect time to celebrate our stars — in the sky and on the big screen.
If you’re a local business that loves creativity, community, and storytelling, we’d love to have you join us as a sponsor or partner for 2026. Together, let’s make next year’s festival our brightest yet.
Click the button below to email me directly.
— Jane Ross, Festival Director
Spring Programme 2025
Spring Programme Highlights
The 2025 Wairarapa Film Festival Spring Programme celebrated heritage, community, and the region’s rich screen history. A special screening of Never Forgotten: The Marines of Masterton — The Director’s Cut (2025) offered audiences a deeper look into the legacy of the US Marine Corps’ time in Wairarapa, exploring their connection with the local community and the memorial created in their honour.
Film heritage took centre stage in the Carterton Entertainment Heritage Walk, a guided journey through the town’s cultural and cinematic past. Highlights included stops at the former Carterton Regent Theatre site and the Lounge Bar, where films were screened in the 2000s, alongside stories of festivals, venues, and creative events that have shaped Carterton’s identity.
Together, these events brought local history into focus, connected audiences with their place, and celebrated the enduring creative and film culture of the Wairarapa.
Autumn Programme 2025
Autumn Programme Highlights
The 2025 Wairarapa Film Festival’s Autumn Programme celebrated creativity, connection, and cinematic heritage. This year’s focus was a retrospective honouring Masterton-born film editor Annie Collins, featuring daily screenings of films she has edited across her extraordinary 50-year career, alongside Q&As and her inspiring masterclass Chaos and Creativity.
Opening Night featured a special screening of the newly digitally restored Barry Barclay classic The Neglected Miracle (1985), and we celebrated the World Premiere of Mark Pacey’s debut documentary Never Forgotten: The Marines of Masterton (2025).
This year also introduced the Schools in Cinemas Programme and the Wairarapa 50-Hour Film Project, inspiring the region’s next generation of filmmakers, and included an engaging masterclass with acclaimed director Rob Sarkies on the theme Sense of Place.
It was a season rich in storytelling, learning, and community — a true celebration of film in the Wairarapa.
