Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival 2025

Rialto Cinemas is proud once again, to bring you the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival.

As we usher in the 14th edition of the festival, we can't help but reflect on the festival's beginnings. Launched in 2012, the festival initially screened exclusively at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket in Auckland. Since then, the festival has expanded into a nationwide event, reaching 12 regions and 15 venues. It has become a key annual film festival in Aotearoa and is one of the largest architecture and design film festivals in the world!

We want to thank our dedicated curatorial partners, who have carefully sourced a rich catalogue of films to build this year's programme and brought the creative vision of the festival to life. We're grateful for their contributions to crafting a festival that continues to challenge, delight, and inspire audiences.

To open the festival, we have a locally made documentary that highlights the talent, vision, and unique architectural stories found right here in Aotearoa. Graeme Murray's The Chodge, opens the doors to Darryl Church's award-winning holiday home on the picturesque banks of Lake Whakamaru, renowned for its striking 'translucent skin' exterior. The film beautifully captures this architectural gem and showcases Church's innovative approach to design. We invite you to step into this truly unique local home—The Chodge is unmissable.

Among this year's standouts are E.1027 — Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea, which explores the designer's iconic modernist villa and her struggle for creative control; The Sense of Tuning, the latest from cult architecture documentarians Bêka & Lemoine (Big Ears Listen With Feet, RADFF 2023; Tokyo Ride, RADFF 2021) which offers a sensory-rich portrait of architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai; and I am Martin Parr, an enormously entertaining look at the acclaimed British photographer, renowned for his unfiltered and mischievous images of British life. Rounding out our selection is Architecton, a poetic study of stone and concrete materials from acclaimed filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky (Gunda); and Schindler Space Architect, narrated by Academy Award-winner Meryl Streep, which vividly brings the pioneering work of R.M. Schindler to life.

As always, we'd like to thank our sponsors for making this festival possible. A special thanks to Resene, our long-standing Naming Rights Sponsor; our Premiere Gold Sponsor ArchiPro; our Gold Sponsors Fisher & Paykel, Colorsteel, Blum, Home Magazine and Go Media; and our Bronze Sponsors ADNZ (Architectural Designers New Zealand) and Inzide.

—Kathryn Bennett Group Manager, Rialto Cinemas

It's amazing what a difference you can make when you dare to be different and do what others say cannot be done.

We are endlessly inspired by the pioneers all around us, who push ahead with new ideas, and despite the brick walls and obstacles that block the path, thanks to a good dose of persistence and grit they find a way to make things happen.

On the cusp of Resene's 80th birthday, we're always reminded of our own pioneering spirit with Ted Nightingale starting Resene in a concrete mixer in a Wellington garage, making a paint to solve his building problem. Despite being a builder rather than a paint maker, Ted persevered to first make a paint he could use on his own projects, then soon found he had a ready market of other builders clamouring to buy it. And thus, Resene was born.

Resene's story is reminiscent of so many others, where a seemingly small solution to a problem becomes a new way of doing things.

We often see this in the architecture and design space. Problems require creativity to solve them and in that creativity is genius. Not only is the problem solved, but the solution opens up new possibilities in the future. All those things we think can't be done, there's most likely someone out there working on the solution.

We see buildings and landscapes reinvented, we see projects that don't just look good but truly work to support those using the space, and we see projects that bring joy to the community, a much-needed beacon of hope and optimism in sometimes trying times. It's a reminder that creativity, passion, colour and enthusiasm have so much to offer us all.

Thanks to Rialto Cinemas, the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival has also overcome its own challenges along the way to now be celebrating its 14th anniversary and its status as one of the largest architecture and design festivals in the world. And we've been privileged to be on the journey since the very first film was shown.

We are always delighted to be able to share this fantastic festival with you, in the hopes that it will inspire you as much as it always inspires us.

Enjoy!

—Nick Nightingale
Managing Director, Resene