Gold Coast Film Festival

The Gold Coast has had over two decades of international film production with the world-renowned Warner Brothers Studios, the Gold Coast is a profound location for film and television production from its natural endearments, climate, beaches, marine life, rainforest and hinterland that made it an ideal location for film and television production.[3] The Gold Coast Film Festival has become a major event for the Australian Film Industry and ambitious filmmakers alike worldwide.[1]

Modelled on the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film, The Gold Coast Film Festival once showcased the many genres of fantasy film, including science fiction, horror, special effects, animation, anime and children’s fantasy together with sidebar events. The Festival now highlights films from all genres, including horror, fantasy, drama, comedy, independent and documentaries. The festival is open to the public.

The Gold Coast Film Festival also supported Australia's first online video maker award ceremony, the Australian Webstream Awards in 2013 and is supported by ABC Gold Coast.[2] Past Program Director, Mitch Ziems, helped open the ceremony that took place at the Metro Arts Theatre in Brisbane, Queensland on 16 November.[4]

Originally Queensland-only, the fest has opened up, looking outside the state for films in a bid "to have that element of discovery rather than just being reliant on distribution to find our films," Festival Director Lucy Fisher says.

The first Gold Coast Film Festival took place in August 2002, the festival director was Casey Marshall Siemer[5] with Oscar-winning visual effects specialist John Cox as patron.[6] As of 2014 the Festival Director is now Kylie Pascoe.[7] The Gold Coast Film festival has a cultural partnership with Supanova Pop Culture Expo and QPOW! as a part of the Gold Coast’s pop culture heritage[8] The Festival is Supported by the QLD State Government through screen Queensland’s Screen Culture Fund, the tourism and events Queensland Regional Development program and The City of the Gold Coast.[9] The festival also has a series of free filmmaking workshops and seminars[10] as well as the GCFF Future Filmmakers seminar held at Bond University for year 11 and 12 high school students who are interested in the film industry to learn from industry leaders, such as directing, writing and producing. The festival also has one-hour seminars, workshops and panels called the inaugural REELLIFE program[11] tailored for the aspiring filmmaker on topics such as financing, film distribution and building online content, which are also presented by industry leaders.

The 15th annual Gold Coast Film Festival will run from Wednesday 19 April – Sunday 30 April 2017 at venues across the Gold Coast.

The full 2017 Program of films and events will be announced in early March. You can expect everything from Australian indie gems to European drama and intriguing American arthouse. There will also be Q&A’s with filmmakers, film industry panels and schools screenings and talks.

For the first time in its 15-year history, the Gold Coast Film Festival 2017 will accept submissions for feature films to screen at the event.[12]

The 2016 Gold Coast Film Festival attracted a record 14,148 attendees across ten days of film screenings and events, increasing attendance by 12% on the previous year.

From internationally acclaimed dramas, comedies and genre films, locally made indie gems and family features, the GCFF offered a culturally diverse, interactive and engaging program of film, events and special guests.

The Festival welcomed some impressive International and Australian industry guests, including Claudia Karvan, Gracie Otto and David Stratton.

For filmmakers and students alike the festival runs a series of free seminars and workshops to educate, inspire and embrace the Gold Coast as a filmmaking destination.

Our location is one with a heritage of filmmaking, with international filmmaking introduced on the Gold Coast in the late 1980s. Fast-forward to 2017 and major international films Unbroken, Pirates of the Caribbean and Thor: Rangarok have chosen the Gold Coast’s incredible locations and highly competent crew to shoot their multimillion-dollar films.

The Gold Coast boasts a heritage of filmmaking, with international filmmaking introduced to the city in the late 1980s.

Fast-forward to 2017 and in the past year, major international films Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Thor: Rangarok have chosen the Gold Coast’s incredible locations and highly competent crew to shoot their multimillion-dollar films.

US productions that have chosen to shoot on the Gold Coast have a combined production budget of A$1.7 billion alone.

As the city’s flagship film event we aim to enhance the reputation of the city as one of Australia’s major filmmaking hubs.

Village Roadshow Studios is a big drawcard in attracting international production to the city. The studios offer film production facilities consisting of eight sound stages, three water tanks, ten production offices, editing suites, wardrobe, makeup, construction, paint and carpentry shops.

Equally, the incredibly diverse range of film locations on the Gold Coast means everything from swamps to city scenes, waterfalls to beaches can be shot here.

Local production is also healthy, with a steady stream of productions shooting on the Gold Coast, including in the past year, Jungle and Flammable Children.

Recent productions filmed or edited on the Gold Coast include:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Kong: Skull Island
• The Shallows
• Unbroken
• Nest
• Jungle
• The Age of Adaline
• San Andreas
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

• List of festivals in Australia

• Gold Coast Film Festival — official website
• FilmFantastic 2004