HEART OF GOLD INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Back July 11-14, 2013

Festival goers, first-timers and old-faithfuls alike, will be treated to a special session this year, called The Best of Heart of Gold, in which around 10 stand-out films from previous year’s festivals will be screened. 

Heart of Gold is also keen to get young people engaged and enjoying cinema.  Apart from having a number of family sessions suitable for the whole family, a new category has been included in the awards. A special addition is that a young local film buff will be chosen to sit on the jury to help choose the inaugural Youth Film Award.

This year’s festival will be highly interactive for film buffs. Festival organisers are utilising a great new festival tool used by the world’s top festivals including Sundance. Festival Genius provides a sophisticated online schedule with facilities for audience members to rate films, write reviews, set their own calendar, link to ticket purchase and incredibly, have access to the FG App to do all these functions on their smart phones.

Artistic Director, Tahnee McGuire is proud of the festival.“Heart of Gold is and always has been unashamedly an audience led festival.  We have passionate local screener groups that watch all the films and we enjoy immensely their feedback and insight.  With every film we program we are always thinking about what the audience will take away from it – whether it’s insight, lots of laughs or an emotional experience.”

Artistic Director, Stephen Kanaris says, “The festival this year has so many highlights it’s hard to pin-point them to be honest.  We’ve really been amazed at the quality of films we’ve been able to source.  We are lucky that many of the films include wonderful performances from seasoned actors such as Emma Thompson, Judi Dench, Lilly Tomlin and Martin Freeman (who is currently starring in the Hobbit).  Of course there are also many other extraordinary performances from up and coming actors. We feel excited to bring these films to our loyal audiences.”

Unique, inspiring and thought provoking films to be screened at the festival include:

• Curfew by Shawn Christensen is the 2013 Academy Award winner for Best Short Film – Live Action.
• Julian by Matthew Moore is a home grown Australian success story exploring the infamous world of a “dobber”. It won the Crystal Bear for Best Short Film, Generation K, and at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. 
• A fascinating film based on a true story is Walking the Dogs, with Emma Thompson as the Queen.
• Night Shift is an extraordinary and moving New Zealand film, which has screened at Cannes, Sundance and New York film festival.

This year’s festival will be highly interactive for film buffs. Festival organisers are utilising a great new festival tool used by the world’s top festivals including Sundance. Festival Genius provides a sophisticated online schedule with facilities for audience members to rate films, write reviews, set their own calendar, link to ticket purchase and incredibly, have access to the FG App to do all these functions on their smart phones.

As a special treat, one of Queensland’s top 50 coffee lounges, Emilia’s Deli in Mary St, Gympie (as rated by The Sunday Mail), will stay open outside normal hours during the festival for film-makers and festival goers.

The Heart of Gold International Film Festival is held in Gympie, July 11-14. Check out the website www.heartofgold.com.au for more details or follow festival updates on Facebook.