After its resurrection last year after a seven year hiatus, one of Australia’s richest short film festivals, Port Shorts Film Festival, returns to Port Douglas announcing their theme for 2016.

Almost everyone has one. The Douglas Shire is famous for them. Now filmmakers can get creative with them, so keep your eyes out for the Screen Theme “Palm”.

The 2016 Port Shorts Local Filmmakers Awards is open to filmmakers from Cairns, the Tablelands, the Douglas Shire and Cooktown while the Port Shorts Young Filmmakers Awards are open to filmmakers from around Australia aged 18 years and under. Filmmakers have an opportunity to share in more than $15,000 in cash and prizes. 

Port Shorts Film Festival Director Alison George said judges Stephen Curry (actor, The Castle), Matt Hearn (producer, Wolf Creek) and screenwriter Kier Shorey (screenwriter, Blurred) would award bonus points for filmmakers’ creative use of the Screen Theme.

“The Port Shorts Local Filmmakers Awards and the Port Shorts Young Filmmakers Awards provide an opportunity for local and young filmmakers to showcase their talents to a broad audience and mix it with some of the best emerging filmmakers in the country,” Alison said.

“Our Port Shorts Screen Theme is literally in the hands of filmmakers to get creative and feature an icon of Far North Queensland somehow in their short film.

“By no means does ‘Palm’ need to be the focus of their short film, we just want it to be a common screen theme our judges and audiences can keep their eyes out for as part of our celebration of the amazing filmmaking talents out there.”

Filmmakers have up to four minutes to tell their stories in both categories and entries need to be submitted by September 30.

The Port Shorts Film Festival will once again be staged under the stars in glorious Port Douglas on October 28-29.

More details about the 2016 Port Shorts Film Festival will be revealed in the coming weeks but in the meantime filmmakers can start plotting their short films for what has emerged as one of Australia’s richest short film festivals.

“Stay tuned for more exciting announcements about the 2016 Port Shorts Film Festival in the coming weeks as we gear up for what will be an amazing two nights of great entertainment,” Alison said.

“We’ve got a range of workshops planned with our judges and other film industry heavyweights and some real treats to reveal about the festival itself.”

Stay informed about the 2016 Port Shorts Film Festival at Port Shorts Film Festival website or Facebook.