NHEHS Film Festival 2024

28 March 2024 | Share:

Our 2024 GDST Film Festival was hugely expanded this year to include a new film convention the evening before the glamorous gala event.

At the convention, we welcomed film industry professionals who ran 12 stalls, including a stunt workshop. Our star-studded guest panel featured casting director Lucy Bevan, responsible for Barbie and Cruella, producer Victoria Fea, who produced TV shows Marchella and The Durrells, and design researcher Karen Krizanovich, who worked on The Avengers and Mission Impossible. For the first time, local schools were invited in addition to GDST schools and over 200 students attended. It was wonderful to be able to offer so many young people the opportunity to listen to and network with film industry giants.

This theme of this year’s film competition was ‘Flip the Script: a different perspective’ and 38 student short films were submitted, the highest number received to date. The quality of the films submitted were outstanding and it’s safe to say the next generation of women in the film industry is secure! Our five judges – Wesley Cannon, Phil Dunn, Victoria Fea, Ashley Gething and Sigrid Goddard – had the tough job of going through all the entries and awarding scores.

The gala night was also hosted at NHEHS and the shortlisted 21 films were screened before the winners were announced and won golden statues. Nearly 200 students, teachers and parents from 12 GDST schools across the country attended the gala. Well done to everyone who entered and were shortlisted and nominated, and congratulations to the winners. The overall winner of Years 7-9 were Wimbledon High and for Years 10-13 were Newcastle High. There were also winners in each age group for different categories including creativity, cinematography, costume, acting and soundtrack.

It was wonderful to see everyone dressed up for the occasion, which elevated the whole ambience of the event. Thank you to PALMBROKERS LTD for providing the wonderful props bringing film magic alive in the school and to our parents who donated several awards, including an Emmy and a BAFTA.