Award-winning documentary-maker Alister Barry (Someone Else's Country, In A Land of Plenty), who is based in Wellington, expanded upon investigative journalist Nicky Hager's 2006 book The Hollow Men to create a 100-minute political thriller.
Barry will stay on for a question-and-answer session with the audience on October 31 at 3.30pm and 6pm.
The 32nd film festival runs this year from October 23 until November 5, in Reading Cinemas at Queenstown Mall.
The festival opens at 8.30pm with Man On Wire, a documentary about French tightrope artiste Phillipe Petit, who performed at several world landmarks, and whose feats included walking between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in 1974.
New Zealand films are well represented in the 30-strong line-up.
As well as The Hollow Men, Sima Urale's contemporary drama Apron Strings; Gerard Smyth's documentary Barefoot Cinema: The Art And Life Of Cinematographer Allun Bollinger; Pietra Brettkelly's documentary The Art Star And The Sudanese Twin; and Vincent Ward's drama Rain Of The Children will feature.
Also planned is Homegrown, a collection of the best Kiwi short films.
Other highlights include the Oscar-winning fact-based drama The Counterfeiters, and Oscar contender Up The Yangtze by Chinese-Canadian documentarian Yung Chang.
The classic 1938 swashbuckler The Adventures of Robin Hood is on, starring the original Tasmanian devil, Errol Flynn; and Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent star in And When Did You Last See Your Father? Cinema general manager Rachel Butcher said six months of the world's finest documentaries, comedies, short films and animation will be shown in the space of two weeks.
"It's sensational we have a festival that's at an international standard here, there's a really wide spectrum of appeal.
"The Hollow Men is a part of our recent and controversial history, and Man On Wire and Up The Yangtze tap into Queenstown's adventure element.
"Garbage Warrior is a documentary focused on green issues, seniors would enjoy Young At Heart particularly, and Caramel has been described as a lesbian chick flick."
