2008 Opening and Awards Ceremony

The opening and awards ceremony of the 2008 HIFF will be held on Saturday October 4th at 7.30pm at the Sir John Clancy Auditorium, University of NSW Kensington.

We'll be screening our finalist Australian and International short films on the theme of joy, so come along and bring your friends and family for a night of great entertainment. Entry is free and food and drinks will be available for sale at the venue.

More details about the opening night will be on our website soon, so get ready for another exciting show and check this spot later for all the news.

Call for Entries!

We are pleased to announce our theme for 2008 and would like to invite all filmmakers from around Australia and the world to make a short film about joy.

This year the festival offers $5000 in cash and prizes and as always we are looking for a variety of films that explore the festival's theme creatively in any genre, which are artistic and thought-provoking.

So if you ever been happy or unhappy, enjoy eating sushi or sipping a

nice coffee, like dancing or skydiving, then you have to enter this year's festival and make the world a happier place with your film!

Entries should be between 2 to 10 minutes in length and the deadline for submissions is Friday August 15th. So check our entries page now to download an application form and for all the details of the 2008 festival.

The opening and awards ceremony will be held in Sydney in October the date of which will be announced later, so get those cameras rolling and best of luck with your films!

2007 Winners

The 2007 opening and awards ceremony took place on Saturday October 6th and the trophies went to:

Best Film: "Rob Tim Tom" by Brendon Brown Killen

Most Original Concept: "Anita" by Vikash Nowlakha

The Achievement Award: "How to be Australian... with Vin & Raj" by Manushka Khisty

And the Audience Choice was also awarded to "How to be Australian... with Vin & Raj" by Manushka Khisty

The 2007 theme was "Respect". See our gallery for all the details of the 07 finalist films!