Gippsland International Film Festival

28/04/2026

We are open for submissions again via FilmFreeway! And wowee you lot are keen! We already have already had our first submissions (plural) in April!

Earlybird is currently open (closes on the 13th September) which is our cheapest option for entry!

We hope to bring another amazing short film festival to regional Victoria in March 2027.

20/03/2026

Our final award for the inaugural run of GIFF 2026 to be announced on social media is for Best International Short Film which goes to Mark Petrasso for 'The Screenwriter'!

We screened The Screenwriter in our opening session at West Gippsland Arts Centre session 1: Laugh until you cry and announced it on the night.

Congratulations once again to Mark and the team on their fabulous film! We hope to see more from you in the future!

Thank you also to everyone who attended our very first run of the festival!

20/03/2026

Congratulations to Andy Layclark and team for Best Australian Short Film for GIFF 2026 for In The Trees!

Circumstances meant we did not get to present this award to Andy on the night.

Thank you for making such a beautiful film piece! And we hope to see more work from you in the future!

Much love your way!

20/03/2026

We wish to offer massive congratulations to Josie Hess and Stephanie Sabrinskas who were awarded Best Gippsland Made Short Film for 2026 for their short documentary 'After The Smoke'!

It's an amazing and uplifting story told exceptionally well by the duo in short doco form!

We wish them all the success and hope to see more film work made by both of them in the future!

18/03/2026

We would also like to again thank the Bendigo Community Bank Neerim District for providing support to our Noojee and Rokeby sessions in the form of a small grant. For this we are grateful. Thank you to the Neerim District Progress Association for their support as well.

We also want to publicly clarify that we received no financial support from Baw Baw shire for the 2026 run of the film festival. However, the staff at West Gippsland Arts Centre were very helpful and supportive of our event and we would like to thank them as people, we appreciated everything that they do. Thank you to the WGAC staff!

17/03/2026

We would like to congratulate Andrew Robards on taking home the award for Best Regionally Made Short Film for The Remains!

The Remains played on our opening night at the West Gippsland Arts Centre in our Dark Regions session.

The Remains is Andrew's first narrative work, made with a combination of 16mm film and digitally with each shot beautifully crafted with artistic intent and features some great naturalistic performances alongside an incredible neo-noir aesthetic.

We look forward to hopefully seeing more narrative work from Andrew in the future!

16/03/2026

We would like to congratulate Abigail Hargrave on taking home the award for best documentary for Love Shack '99!

All round we had an incredibly strong group of short documentaries in the festival this year (we cannot overstate that enough), but as a group we felt that Love Shack '99 had an emotional impact and resonance with us and our regional audience.

We hope to see Abigail to continue to make more heartfelt work about human connection and place.

16/03/2026

The beautiful drama Lara screened at GIFF 2026 at the West Gippsland Arts Centre on our opening night! We were thrilled that Leah and Natalia could attend and we got a chance to talk film 🎥 Big things in the future for this creative powerhouse of a team! 🖤💚

10/03/2026

Alana was interviewed today about the film festival by Win News! Thanks for chatting Jack Morgan!

08/03/2026

We now have the full GIFF 2026 program with information about each short film and the filmmakers up on our website!

If you'd like to find out more about some of the films you can see more information on our 2026 Program page.

Thanks for you attention!

2026 Program The Screenwriter The Screenwriter – directed by Mark Petrasso (Italy) ‘A screenwriter is grappling with a new story: […]

06/03/2026

Highlighting Session 4: Community and Connection - Saturday 14th March at the Noojee Heritage Centre !

We're going to project a beautiful selection of short films 🎥 and docos onto a train carriage!

Heritage Gifts & Coffee - Noojee is going to open up and do hot drinks, some hot food and popcorn 🍿

Before the screening the West Gippsland Concert Band is going to play some cinematically inspired music.

Tickets are now available via Humanitix.
https://events.humanitix.com/gippsland-international-film-festival-noojee-session
Please purchase before the night so we can advise NHCGS on popcorn and food options. Rug up as it's outdoors at night!

Promo reel for Noojee films

-In the Trees – Andy Layclark - Australia
-Love Shack '99 – Abigail Hargrave - Australia
-Keith – Michael Demarco and Nic Alexander- Australia
-That's Right – Alan Claridge - Australia
-Eye of the Game - Ramas McRae - Australia
-The Moon Had a Shadow – Phil Hart - Australia
-After the smoke – Stephanie Sabrinskas and Josie Hess - Gippsland
Aldbrough – Gail Smith - Gippsland