Overview
The Gold Coast Film Festival isn't the first film fest to marvel at the sight of sun, surf and sand on the big screen. Thanks to a surf film retrospective at the Brisbane International Film Festival over a decade back, it isn't the first to do so in southeast Queensland, either. But it is the perfect spot for big waves to get rolling in a cinema, as the just-announced 2023 GCFF program celebrates with a dedicated strand of flicks that'll serve up that very experience.
This isn't the first time that the Gold Coast's annual film fest itself has embraced the ocean, of course — its 2022 lineup included a session of Blue Crush, for instance — but there's no such thing as too much sea-obsessed cinema at this event. So, 2023 attendees can look forward to Big Wave Guardians, which focuses on surfing in Hawaii; The Road to Patagonia, about ecologist Matty Hannon's efforts to surf the west coast of the Americas while travelling by motorbike; Big vs Small, with big-wave champion surfer Joana Andrade and world-champion free diver Johanna Nordblad in the spotlight; and Birth of the Endless Summer, which steps behind iconic surf documentary The Endless Summer.
GCFF's latest curated collection of movies spans further, including three world premieres, three Australian premieres and 15 Queensland premieres across Wednesday, April 19–Sunday, April 30 at HOTA, Home of the Arts and other GC venues. Making its Sunshine State debut is opening night's Polite Society, about a martial artist-in-training endeavouring to save her sister from an arranged marriage — and a hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Bookending the other end of the fest is doco The Last Daughter, also in a Queensland first, about Indigenous director Brenda Matthews' experience being taken from her family as a toddler, growing up with white foster parents, then being returned to her parents.
Also, big-name TV gets a look in via Netflix's Sweet Tooth, which is previewing its first two episodes of season two ahead of its long-awaited streaming debut on Thursday, April 27.
Elsewhere on the lineup, Aussie cinema receives a showcase complete with must-sees Sweet As and The Survival of Kindness — both hits on the international film festival circuit, with the former an outback-set coming-of-age story written and directed by Indigenous filmmaker Jub Clerc (The Heights), and the latter hailing from acclaimed director Rolf de Heer. There's also thriller Monolith, about a journalist chasing a conspiracy, plus documentary The Giants about the life of environmental activist Bob Brown.
And, the fest also continues its Local Filmmaker Focus, screening a trio of titles from Gold Coast talent.
Hits and standouts from far and wide are another big highlight of GCFF's 2023 selection, which is where the Oscar-nominated EO, a portrait of a donkey, comes in — as do Cannes 2022 Best Actress winner Holy Spider, the same fest's Best Screenplay recipient Cairo Conspiracy, and the fittingly cinema-obsessed I Like Movies. If you can only see a handful of flicks at the festival, make sure that the stunning The Inspection is one of them, as based on filmmaker Elegance Bratton's true tale about being a gay Black man who joined the marines.
Film lovers can look forward to the return of short film fest SIPFEST within the broader GCFF program as well, which'll screen 14 titles at HOTA's outdoor stage. Plus, among the industry-focused events sits the Screen Industry Gala Awards at Warner Bros Movie World, aptly, plus the GCFF Women in Film Lunch in the QT Gold Coast's Ballroom.
The 2023 Gold Coast Film Festival runs from Wednesday, April 19–Sunday, April 30 at HOTA, Home of the Arts and other venues on the Gold Coast. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
Sweet Tooth image courtesy of Netflix.