The 16th annual Gold Coast Film Festival will feature more than 100 film screenings and events, including 40 feature films, the world premiere of The Pretend One, plus seven Australian premieres and seven Queensland premieres, which will take place at various Gold Coast locations over the 13 days. The festival’s opening night will be held at HOTA (Home of the Arts) and will feature the Australian premier screening of thriller film The Second, attracting the film’s director Mairi Cameron and cast including Rachael Blake and Vince Colosimo to the Gold Coast for the exclusive event.

The Gold Coast Film Festival will also screen the Queensland premier of Simon Baker’s film Breath, with a red-carpet gala event at Pacific Fair on Thursday April 19. (Note, if you see Simon Baker in the flesh – act cool). For the fans of short films, the festival will also feature short-film event screenings including Scream Fest (Queensland short film horrors), Emerge (by film graduates) and SIPFest, which showcases a collection of 12 short films screened on Surfers Paradise beach. That is quite literally just the tip of the iceberg – for the full line-up of events, jump over here and start planning.