"In a provincial Italian town in 1971, Anna (Micaela Ramazzotti), a beautiful mother of two children, struggles to provide for her small family after the collapse of her marriage. Despite the difficult times, Anna teaches her kids to embrace the small joys of life and never loses her passion and optimistic nature, even after her son ostracises her. Year later, when she is diagnosed with a terminal disease, both children return to her bedside where following a series of startling revelations, they come to understand their unpredictable mother and their unconventional upbringing." (Official Synopsis)

French drama about a 10-year-old girl who assumes a male identity in order to fit in with the other children when her family move to a small village. The film has won numerous awards at film festivals around the world.

"Confirming the talent shown in her debut Water Lilies, Céline Sciamma explores children’s notions of gender and identity. 10-year-old Laure and her family have just moved to a new neighbourhood. Her mother is heavily pregnant with a third child, a baby brother for Laure and little sister Jeanne. Androgynous Laure hovers between childhood and something else, still romping around at home with giggly Jeanne in her thrall, but also keen to strike out on her own and enjoy what’s left of the summer holidays. When Lisa, a next-door neighbour Laure’s age, asks Laure her name, she forthrightly responds ‘Michaël’. Soon Michaël, barechested and bold, is playing soccer with the local boys. However, trying out boys’ stuff requires deception that Laure will have difficulty maintaining." (Source: NZ International Film Festival 2011)

Glenn Close (Dangerous Liasons) dons a top hat in this tale of a woman posing as a male butler in 19th Century Ireland.

During an era where female independence was non-existent and heavily discouraged, Albert Nobbs (Close) escapes a life of poverty and despair by disguising herself as a “himself.” However, she seeks to dismantle her façade after meeting a handsome painter. While trying to reconstruct an ordinary life, she acquires the company of a gorgeous young house maid (Mia Wasikowska, Jane Eyre), who has her own man-seeking agendas.

This is the third big-screen pairing of Glenn Close and director Rodrigo Garcia, the prior two being Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her and Nine Lives. Close, who also co-wrote the screenplay, originally played the role in a 1982 stage production.

Winner of the Audience Award at Sundance 2011 (for US Documentary), about American Buck Braannaman – from his abusive childhood to his life as a successful horse-whisperer.

“Legendary horse trainer Buck Brannaman… tours the world giving clinics on ‘starting’ colts, using a method of firm but sensitive nonverbal instruction that one rancher admiringly calls ‘voodoo.’ Brannaman’s entire philosophy of how horses mirror the psychology and insecurities of their owners… stems from the merciless brutality that he and his brother experienced in childhood, at the hands of an alcoholic father, an experience that informs his entire ‘feel’ for managing equine fear. It must be admitted: this guy’s instinctively empathic way with animals is uncanny. [ Filmmaker Cindy ] Meehl tracks Buck (a former child-celebrity trick roper who made numerous TV appearances after he went pro at age six) from Montana to the Carolinas as he calmly tames one unmountable wild thing after another with nothing more than a lead rope and a couple of flags, spinning stories and bracing bits of wisdom for his audiences, while matter-of-factly confiding to Meehl’s camera the gruesome facts of his youth.” (Source: NZ International Film Festival 2011)

Woody Allen romantic comedy set in Paris, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates and Carla Bruni.

Soon to be married Gil (Wilson) and Inez (McAdams) are holidaying in Paris. While Inez spends her time fawning over her smug former boyfriend also on holiday (Sheen), Gil (Wilson) frets over his literary talents - he’s a screenwriter yearning to put his name on a novel and join the pantheon of great American writers of a bygone era. When out exploring by himself, Gil comes across a group of retro-dressed partygoers who beckon him to join them in a spot of time-travelling carousing. There he meets an A-list of literary giants who rubbed shoulders in 1920s Paris. Returning night after night, Gil relishes his new intellectual chums and grows increasingly annoyed at the seemingly shallow reality of life with his future wife and in-laws (Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy).