A cornerstone of the festival, LOCALS returns for its fifth year to celebrate homegrown storytelling and champion grassroots creative voices from across the region. From heartfelt to hilarious, this vibrant collection of short-form documentaries offers a window into the people, places, and stories that make our community unlike any other. 

Our annual celebration of homegrown storytelling returns! LOCALS brings together a vibrant collection of short-form documentaries by central Victorian filmmakers. From heartfelt to hilarious, these films offer a window into the people, places, and stories that make our community unlike any other.

Every year, the LOCALS session packs out with applause, laughter, awe, and the occasional “Wait, isn’t that my neighbour?” This year promises no less. Bursting with creativity and heart, the judges’ selection celebrates the eccentricities, questions, memories, and momentum of regional life. From hand-held reflections to high-vis heroes, this is the heartbeat of our community on screen. We’re thrilled to announce the lineup for LOCALS 2026:

HARCOURT FIRES – Katherine Seppings – writer, director, narrator, photographer
Katherine Seppings is a writer and photographer who lives in Harcourt. On 9 January 2026, as the Fogarty’s Gap Rd fire approached, she evacuated to North Harcourt, experiencing the fire twice. Katherine captured the terror and devastation on the day, and the following weeks of recovery and renewal.

FROM THE BUSH TO THE FOREST – Libby O’Brien
We celebrate and meet eight beautiful Thai rescue elephants who touch the hearts of our community, teach us forgiveness and show us a better way.

ON TWO WHEELS – Janice Burgess
Castlemaine lies on the 37 latitude line and Bendigo rail line…it could be mistaken for any Victorian town. What lies beneath is a richness of industrial history and a humble piece of architecture ….the workers bike shed.
We ride today with the grit of that past under our tyres and the foundry whistle in our ears.

DISCOVERING WONDERPANTS – Cosmo Adams – Camera operator, Editor, Director
This is a documentary highlighting a local business, Wonderpants and the wonderful work they do for the community. It follows the owner, Hannah Jeffords, as she goes through the method and production of underpants. I spent an afternoon in the local studio down at the Mill watching the amount of precision she uses when producing the garments. 

WITH HAND AND HEART. THE STORY OF LOST TRADES – Chris Appleby – producer/director/editor
The Lost Trades movement celebrates rare trades and heritage skills used to create meticulously-crafted items that are handmade, of heirloom quality, authentic and sustainable, shunning the mass produced, throwaway culture most of the world lives in today. 

LIFE. AND DEATH. – Filming and editing — Elizabeth Geddes
The arts practice of Hayley West reveals how the living memorialise the dead. Her work as a death literacy advocate nurtures ethical, personal and environmentally conscious deathcare. Life. And death. meets Hayley betwixt the two.

MAINE FRAMES – Gloria Hansford & Joe Smith
Too many 8mm home movies are ending up in landfill. Our colourful and wobbly, shared visual history is being lost because people don’t know what they are throwing away. Could a local, 8mm enthusiast save the day and build an 8mm archive of our local shire?

NO ORDINARY LUNCH – Leonie Van Eyk – Filmmaker
No Ordinary Lunch follows Duang as she moves between gardens, farms, produce donators and sellers, sink and pot to servery, focussing on the impact Duang and her team of volunteers have on so many in the community. No Ordinary Lunch offers a glimpse into the precious ecosystem that is community lunch and how it directly effects families, children, elderly, cross cultures, visitors, newcomers, the disabled as well as incarcerated women. 

STAND UP – Filmmaker Jim Coad, Subject Maedeh Najafi
In the face of depression, Maedah, a Persian women and strict Muslim, finds herself without the support she desperately need from her husband or her father. Disposing of her Hijab, and making big changes in her life, she finds that laughter really is the best medicine.

BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY – Josh Poole – Director, Lisa Mills – Editor, Filming
We visit Michael’s home just after it was lost to fire where he shares his devastation.

This session always fills fast, so grab your tickets, and come and cheer on our local legends! 

PRIZES