Gold Coast Film Festival 2014, the twelfth festival held to date wrapped up almost a fortnight ago with an Australian premiere of psychological thriller The Babadook. The stats are now in and by all indications the festival was a great success with ten days of films, special events and industry sessions seeing ticket sales increase by 47% over 2013’s figures. Among the 40 films shown during the festival which consisted of local, national and international productions, fifteen were Australian premieres, four were world premieres and an additional three were world premieres.
While most of the films on offer were live action, the Gold Coast Film Festival continued its pop culture heritage through a cultural partnership with Supanova: Pop Culture Expo which was held on the first weekend of the festival. As part of its pop cultural offer, the GCFF welcomed special guest and voice over artist, John DiMaggio (Futurama, The Simpsons) for a Q&A following the Australian premiere of I Know That Voice, a collection of the world’s leading voice actors giving insight into their crafts. They also worked with Madman Entertainment to release a number of anime films, as well as an exclusive English-language screening of Anime Mirai 2013.
As part of its broadening cultural footprint on the Gold Coast, the GCFF in conjunction with the Royal QLD Art Society (RQAS) incorporated a visual arts component with Art at GCFF, a ‘Re-imagining the Movies’ art competition. Receiving over 110 entries, this special event incorporated the visual art forms of sculpture, painting, drawing and photography with these entries remaining on display at the Royal Queensland Art Society (25 Broadbeach Boulevard, Broadbeach Q. 4218) until April 30 2014. The inaugural GCFF Movie Trivia Night with ABC Gold Coast’s Bern Young as trivia host was another example of the GCFF extending its offer and reach to great results. While I did not attend this event, it was purportedly very popular and a real enjoyable night.
Another program that was a first for the festival was REELLIFE, a series of seminars, panels and workshops for both industry professionals, newcomers to the industry and those curious alike. The REELLIFE program provided a forum for emerging and existing filmmakers to hear from some of the Industry’s most experienced and successful practitioners and representatives with these special guests including: Ian Collie (Saving Mr Banks and ABC TV’s Rake), director Brad Peyton (San Andreas, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), Richard Becker (Becker Film Group) and Alan Finney OAM (Chair of the AFI/AACTA), Tracey Vieira (Screen Queensland) and Colleen Champ (Screen Australia) amongst others.
While the main festival is all over, the Gold Coast Film Festival team are aiming to hold a number of special events throughout the year. Keep an eye on The Otaku’s Study for more news as it becomes available.
