Film Festival salutes three sell-out shows

THREE sold out nights of compelling surf films and photography wrapped up on Saturday night, with the Bells Beach Surf Film Festival saluting a successful 2023 outing.

Attracting upwards of 200 spectators through the doors of the Australian National Surfing Museum in Torquay from Thursday (January 5) to Saturday (January 7), the 12th annual festival showcased films from far and wide, including a host of local films that featured the surfers and style masters of the Surf Coast and Bellarine Peninsula.

The festival also included showings of the world famous The Yin and Yang of Gerry Lopez as well as the very special African Territory, which sees the Azulay brothers from Spain traverse through the African continent in search of perfect waves.

Festival Director John Foss said it was a pleasure to bring the longest running surf film festival in Australia back to the people of the Surf Coast.

The film festival consisted of both local and international films.

“We were really happy with how things went, we got a lot of positive feedback from the audiences each night,” Foss said.

“[The festival] is great for local surfers and filmmakers, we’ve got some really talented people in this town and it’s great to be able to support them and have the films up on the big screen for an audience.

“We presented five films featuring female surfers and four of those five had female writers/directors and producers, so it was great for us to promote and support a large number of female surf filmmakers at the festival as well.

“It was the first time we had sold out all three nights and sold them all out well in advance, which was very exciting.

“We would love to have a bigger venue and hope that one comes to Torquay soon, like the new cinema.”

Natural High which starred Stephanie Gilmore won the best film award.

Since its inception the festival has broadcast to around 2,500 people, shown 150 surf films and has given away $6,000 to local charities and filmmakers.

The event committee are expected to announce in the coming weeks where the fundraising money will go in 2023.

The Bells Beach Surf Film Festival received support from their event sponsors, Reef, Bells Beach Brewing and Patagonia this year.

Overall award winners for the festival were:

Best Short Film – Great Ocean Love

Best Cinematography – Other Land

Best Film – Natural High

Peter Tory ‘Spirit of Surfing Adventure’ Award – African Territory