There’s nothing I love more than the Christmas holidays which see us driving to Taihape and the Bay of Islands to spend time with family, but nor is there anything wrong with visiting a few slightly more exotic locations in December.

This month in our Directors’ Showcase we celebrate the varied and experimental career of British director Michael Winterbottom.

There’s nothing funny about terrorism or terrorists, unless you’re watching director Christopher Morris’ satire Four Lions.

In 2004, director Aaron Schneider won an Academy Award for his short film Two Soldiers, based on a William Faulkner story. In his other life Schneider pays the bills as an award winning cinematographer, having worked extensively in television and on films such as Titanic (Second Unit DOP) and Kiss the Girls (DOP).

Which is just as well. It took six years from winning his Oscar for this rising star to get his debut feature film Get Low into cinemas - an amusing little drama staring Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, it was worth the wait.

Rialto Official Selection this Saturday evening features the gritty, violent and enthralling Harry Brown, featuring the iconic Michael Caine.