Surf film festival to return to Torquay

SUBMISSIONS are now open for Australia’s longest-running surf film festival, which will again be hosted in Torquay.

The Bells Beach Surf Film Festival will hold screenings in January 2025, giving film-lovers the opportunity to feast their eyes on some of the best surfing flicks from home and abroad.

The three-day festival has been a sell-out over the last two years and organisers are anticipating the same next year.

Festival lead John Foss said the event welcomed both short film and feature long-documentary entries from all over the world.

“Everyone is pretty excited for the 2025 edition to come around, particularly because we’ve sold out our last seven nights of films.

“Submissions have been open for a few weeks already and we’ve had a handful of international films come through from Argentina, Morocco and Costa Rica.

“People just love seeing surf films down here. There’s a real appetite. I’m sure it’ll be another ripper this year.”

Mr Foss said the committee encouraged filmmakers to make the trip to Torquay to attend the festival and talk about their feature.

“This year we had Spencer Frost and Johnny Teague both come to their film premieres and talk to audiences about their visions and filmmaking.

“It just adds to the festival and the audiences get so much out it.”

Film submissions will remain open for the next two months, before a shortlist of films is published in September.

The full program will be announced in November.