by FilmInk Staff
Surf cinema explores culture, conservation and community across two special Northern Rivers venues
From Bali’s legendary Uluwatu to the coastlines of Japan, Senegal, Chile and Brazil – and back home through Lennox Head and Angourie – the Byron Bay International Film Festival is bringing a diverse collection of surf cinema to Stone & Wood Brewery and Brunswick Picture House this October.
At the heart of the program are two nights at Stone & Wood, where films from around the world look beyond the pursuit of the perfect wave to explore the cultures, communities and environments that surround surfing – and what happens when the places surfers love face pressures of their own.
The first Stone & Wood session is headlined by Australian Premiere Magic Island, a journey into Uluwatu, Bali, where a once remote fishing village has become one of the world’s most celebrated surfing and tourism destinations.
Director Max Blue DeSantis brings together local residents, surfers, activists and cultural figures including Rio Waida, Made Lana, Rizal Tandjung, Mega Semadhi, Gerry Lopez and Jim Banks to explore the consequences of that extraordinary transformation.
At its heart is a question with particular resonance in the Northern Rivers: what happens when the world discovers – and changes – a place people love?
Magic Island is accompanied by three surf shorts taking the audience from Japan and Senegal all the way back to Australia’s east coast.
Monozukuri (Japan Shapes) explores the dedication to craft and process found among Japanese surfboard shapers, while Nio Ko Bokk (This Belongs to All of Us) follows two young Senegalese men whose connection to surfing opens a story about community, opportunity and belonging.
Then ECAT 2026 (East Coast Activation Tour) brings the story very close to home.
Following the World Surfing Conservation Conference on the Gold Coast, 22 surfers from nine countries set out on an extraordinary journey linking Australia’s National Surfing Reserves from the Gold Coast to Sydney.
Travelling through Lennox Head and Angourie, the international group connected local surfing communities with surfers from Peru, Costa Rica, Rapa Nui, Chile, Mexico, Spain, the USA, Indonesia and Australia.
More than a road trip in search of waves, ECAT became an exchange of surf cultures and a call to protect the breaks, coastlines and communities that sustain them.
The following night Stone & Wood heads across the Pacific for Onda Latina – Latin Wave, a collection of three Australian Premiere films from Chile and Brazil.
In Chile’s Huiro, a surfer, his dog and a handmade camper head along the coast on a journey that becomes a search for connection and a return to where things begin.
Brazilian film O Chamado do Oceano (The Calling of the Ocean) intertwines three lives shaped by the sea, exploring surfing as spirituality, philosophy and an act of preservation.
And Ferocidade Maxima (Maximum Ferocity) introduces Lúcio “Feroz” Firmino, a descendant of the Tupiniquim whose relationship with the ocean has carried him through scarcity, grief and single fatherhood. For Feroz, surfing becomes healing, resistance and a way forward.
Together, the two Stone & Wood sessions show a side of surf filmmaking increasingly concerned with what happens beyond the break – culture and identity, environmental protection, development, craftsmanship and the communities for whom the ocean is much more than a playground.
BBFF’s celebration of surf cinema also extends to Brunswick Picture House, where Salt in Her Veins – Women’s Surf Films brings together six short films placing women and their experiences firmly at the centre of surf culture.
She in Storms, Cold Water Sirens, Surf, Eat, Repeat, Surf Sisters, Women of the Waves and Of Waves and Worth travel across different oceans, generations and communities, with stories of sisterhood, resilience and women carving out their own space in the line-up.
For the Byron Bay International Film Festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary this October, these films reflect a relationship with the ocean that has always been part of the region’s identity – while revealing just how differently that relationship is experienced around the world.
SURF CINEMA AT BBFF 2026 MAGIC ISLAND + Q&A + SURF SHORTS Thursday 22 October | Stone & Wood Brewery Magic Island; Monozukuri (Japan Shapes); Nio Ko Bokk (This Belongs to All of Us); ECAT 2026 (East Coast Activation Tour) ONDA LATINA – LATIN WAVE Friday 23 October | Stone & Wood Brewery Huiro; O Chamado do Oceano (The Calling of the Ocean); Ferocidade Maxima (Maximum Ferocity) SALT IN HER VEINS – WOMEN’S SURF FILMS Sunday 18 October, 6pm | Brunswick Picture House Six short films
BYRON BAY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL | 16-25 OCTOBER 2026 | bbff.com.au
