8 June 2026
Wellington Film Society marked its 80th birthday in June with a special film festival. Playing The Part featured eight films – one from each decade of the society’s history.
A staple of Monday nights at the Embassy Theatre, in recent years, Wellington Film Society has become enormously popular with a growing membership base and most films now having two screenings each week.
We caught up with Wellington Film Society President Harry Evans.
I start by congratulating Harry on the achievement of eight decades of screening films in Wellington and ask what he thinks has made the society so strong and continue to flourish?
“I think people love film. It’s an amazing art form with a rich but fairly short history of a bit over a century. Digging into that history and seeing films from all over the world is really rewarding. I think the communal experience is also a key part of our longevity and success. We’ve grown a lot in recent years, which is not probably what you would expect from the general perception of changing media habits we have.”
Over the past few years, Wellington Film Society has experienced growth in popularity with queues at the doors of the Embassy Theatre on Monday nights. I ask Harry if this increase in popularity came as a surprise and why the Monday screenings have become a ‘cool’ must do in the city?
“I think what we do is extremely cool (playing interesting films at one of the best cinemas in the world), but yes, I am sometimes surprised so many others think so too. “Our team of volunteers is super talented, and all contribute things that come together to build the overall experience and vibe – I’m thinking of our great Instagram (run by Barend Buchler) and our pre-screening slides (made by Adam Glucksman).”
The programme for the 80th anniversary festival featured a film from each decade, but what else went into deciding which films were shown?
“A few of us loved the idea of a Friday night screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights and Johnny Crawford came up with the idea of Playing the part being a unifying theme – so all the films had something to do with performance literally or figuratively.”
What was your personal favourite from the festival weekend?
“Boogie Nights, and also Imitation of Life and Jeanne Dielman because I’d not seen those before. One of the good things about running the film society is enabling myself to have the best possible first experience with films I’ve wanted to see for a long time.”
Tell us more about the programme for the rest of the year?
“2026 has been a great programme so far and there is much more to come. Just this month we’re playing films by Brian De Palma and Wong Kar-Wai. A few highlights for me are:
- Our live cinema screening of a silent film, The Wind with the score performed by local musicians.
- One of the great classic Hollywood comedies, The Philadelphia Story with Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katherine Hepburn. It’s a fun farce with hilarious drunk acting.
- Our 2026 season closing night film on 7 December is Hitchcock’s Vertigo – this fits into a theme of films we’ve played this year called Disappearing Acts which are all gothic, eerie tales of disappearances and doublings – we’ve already played Picnic at Hanging Rock and Don’t Look Now.
Find out more about joining Wellington Film Society here
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