Held in richly historic Gympie, Australia from 6-9 October 2016, Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival is one of the sparkling gems in the crown of Australian film festivals. We like to think it has extra sparkle thanks to its unique mission: to showcase well-crafted films from around the world that deeply resonate with the viewer. At Heart of Gold, we believe it takes a special kind of storytelling magic to break through to the audience on an emotional level, and we’re all about celebrating films that do just that.

The four-day program includes industry masterclasses, a spectacular opening night gala, awards night party and up to 30 sessions of shorts from all genres that best capture Heart of Gold’s vision to screen films that are positive, witty, entertaining, joyous, uplifting, enlightening and ground-breaking. They can be edgy, they can be thought-provoking and they can be downright hilarious – as long as they beat with a good, strong heart.

All films in the festival compete for the Best Short Film award, which carries a generous prize of $5000. Other award categories include: Best Australian Short Film, Best Student Short Film, Screener’s Choice, Best Cinematography, Best Script, and Younger at Heart (for budding high school filmmakers).

Over the last nine years Heart of Gold has become renowned for its high quality program which is largely thanks to a very unique, two-part screening system. The films are filtered through the festival’s artistic director and passed onto small screener groups, who gather in lounge-rooms across Gympie to review and score the countless, treasured submissions.