So far this year cinemas have been filled with 2012 Golden Globe and Academy Award winners and nominees, but with the school holidays approaching the tone of the film’s being released has changed somewhat.

So far this year cinemas have been filled with 2012 Golden Globe and Academy Award winners and nominees, but with the school holidays approaching the tone of the film’s being released has changed somewhat.

I’m a fan of all sorts of films so I enjoy a good blockbuster and kids film as much as the next person, but I have to say thank goodness for the World Cinema Showcase. Currently screening its mix of top notch international films and documentaries in Auckland, the showcase is a warm-up to the larger New Zealand International Film Festival which kicks off in Auckland on July 19. It’s run by the team behind the NZIFF and is an annual collaboration between the NZ Film Festival Trust and enterprising exhibitors around the country.

The World Cinema Showcase has been running for 14 years, and like its big brother screens a collection of feature films, documentaries and classic films across a variety of genres. You’re very likely to find something that rocks your boat, so check out the full line up at the website: www.worldcinemashowcase.co.nz.

The New Zealand International Film Festival also made some noise recently, announcing their first ever Short Film Competition - with cash prizes.

All local short films premiering in NZ at the festival will be eligible and it’s open to all genres, including narrative, documentary, experimental and animated films. 12 films will be shortlisted by the NZIFF programmers and a guest judge will then select five finalists to headline the New Zealand’s Best Short Film programme at the Festival.

And the prize - $5000 donated by Australasian distribution company Madman for the Best New Zealand Short. There will also be a chance for festival goers to have their say with the Audience Choice Award, with The Friends of the Civic Prize being presented to an emerging filmmaker screening their film in the Auckland programme.

Madman Entertainment is also getting behind Wellington filmmakers Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland’s debut feature Shopping, the long awaited follow up to their incredibly successful short films Run and The Six Million Dollar Fifty Man.

Both previous shorts screened at the Cannes, Sundance and Berlin film festivals, but it was a struggle for Albiston and Sutherland to find a local producer available to take on Shopping, a story about a young boy torn between his family and a life of shoplifting. Australian producers Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw of Warp Films Australia leapt at the chance to produce, and if Warp Films success with Snowtown around the world is anything to go by Shopping is in good hands.

Madman will distribute the film in New Zealand and Australia, and it’s the first New Zealand film the company has committed to at the script stage. Filming starts this April on the Kapiti Coast - can’t wait to see the result.