By Richard Stoker

After a seven year hiatus the newly resurrected Port Shorts Film Festival was well supported by the community bringing a trio of leading lights in Australian film to Port Douglas as ambassadors and judges, and the general feeling is that they got it right.

Matt Hearn the Executive Producer of Wolf Creek and other top Australian movies, is dedicated to lifting the profile of Australian made movies, overseas as well as locally.

Stephen Curry needs no introduction to Australian movie buffs since his performance in The Castle and many dramatic television series, was Master of Ceremonies. Feeling very much at home up here, he has even befriended George the Groper.

Kier Shorey is a screenwriter and film maker in his own right who has beaten the best in the world to win awards at the Cannes Festival in the short films category.  We are fortunate to have him living so close to us, since he’s with the ABC Far North Queensland.

They were extremely approachable and in addition to the judging, on the Saturday afternoon they gave up their time to hold a filmmaking workshop.  They express their amazement at the high quality of the over 100 entrants and this, they agreed, does well for the future of the festival.

Alison George Director of Port Shorts said Port Shorts came back with a bang.

“Port Shorts organisers would like to thank the Raiders Rugby Club for providing such a fantastic location and the outdoor cinema, all of our sponsors for their support, all of the filmmakers who entered their film and everyone who attended.

“It was a great resurrection of Port Shorts and rest assured the festival will be back even bigger and better next year,” said Ms George.

Mayor Julia Leu who attended both the Friday and Saturday evening screenings said it was a fantastic event.

“The new look "Port Shorts" was a huge success and I hope will become a regular on our annual event calendar, as it has enormous potential. Congratulations to the Port Shorts Committee, sponsors, judges and the Raiders Rugby Union Club for a fabulous two nights of film and entertainment.”

Mayor Leu said it was great to see so many local entries including those from Mossman State High School students.

“We were incredibly fortunate to have Stephen Curry, Matt Hearn and Kier Shorey as the judges. I know that they were impressed with the overall quality, creativity and technical expertise of the entries. Stephen did a fabulous and often hilarious job as MC,” said Mayor Leu.

Winners of Friday night's inaugural Young Filmmakers Awards showcasing 22 music videos, microdocos and short films from young filmmakers aged 18 years and under:

Samantha Hope won the Music Video category with a clip for her own band Glider Pilots, Shoe Box

Sebastian Marsden won best microdoco with his visually spectacular Myanmar and Japan

His brother Oliver won a new $3000 Canon XC10 camera for best Young Filmmaker short film with Tension

Will Mason winning the Audience Choice award for Meal Team Six

On Saturday night more than 400 people turned out to watch the 11 finalists in the Local Filmmaker Category and the 13 finalists in the Open Filmmaker category and the winners were:

Mowbray filmmaker Dean Miller picked up $2000 for his stunning underwater odyssey Seventh Natural Wonder

Melbourne filmmaker Natalie Van Den Dungen picked up $5000 as the popular winner of Best Open Short Film

Hayden Bevis won Audience Choice with Unspoken

James Walker was presented with the Jury Prize, a $3800 filmmaking course with the New York Film Academy, for his short film Forever