Central Coast Film Festival 2026 program announced after a record number of entries, tickets on sale now

Opening with This Bloody Country and a Q&A with star Martin Dingle Wall. Cinema Paradiso, Ettalong Beach, 14 to 21 November.

The Central Coast Film Festival (CCFF) has announced its 2026 official selections, chosen from a record number of entries. Films from 11 countries screen over eight days at Cinema Paradiso, Ettalong Beach, from Saturday 14 to Saturday 21 November. The full program is live and tickets are on sale now at centralcoastfilmfestival.com.

Now in its third year, the festival brings features, documentaries, mid-length films, animation, music videos and shorts packages to the Coast, with local filmmakers screening alongside work from Australia and around the world.

“Three years ago we set out to create a foundation on which a screen culture for the Central Coast could be built, to not only create a screen industry for the area by attracting productions to use our locations, but to put our local filmmakers on a pedestal and give them the chance to see their work is as good as anything produced in the world,” said Festival Creative Director Timothy Wilde. “This year’s program puts local work right beside films from around the world, and that’s exactly where it belongs.”

Festival Highlights

The festival opens on Saturday 14 November with a launch at 5pm: a Welcome to Country, the Director’s statement, the media wall, and free drinks and canapés. At 7pm, This Bloody Country (dir. Craig Packard, USA) opens the festival, followed by a Q&A with its star, Martin Dingle Wall. Set in 1869, the western follows a hired guide leading a family from Salt Lake City to set up a new church outpost, until an attack by bandits sets him against the family’s patriarch.

Martin Dingle Wall’s career started here on the Central Coast, starring in the local TV pilot My Secret, before fame found him on Home and Away as Flynn Saunders, a role that earned him a Logie nomination for Most Popular New Male Talent. He has since starred on television in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, Rescue: Special Ops, Cops L.A.C. and Cypher, and on film in The Dry, Strangerland with Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes, and Gun Shy with Antonio Banderas. In This Bloody Country he plays Ned Campbell, an Australian gunman paid by the church to protect the family on their journey.

On Sunday 15 November at 12pm, the documentary TYCHO! Beyond the Baton (dir. Stephan J Wellink) tells the story of maestro Tommy Tycho AM MBE: his early years in Hungary, surviving the Holocaust, playing piano for the Shah of Iran, and five decades as Australia’s pre-eminent musical director. It features Ray Martin, James Morrison, Julie Anthony, Barry Crocker, Jane Rutter, John Foreman, Simon Tedeschi, David Mitchell, Jackie Love and Samuel Cottell, and the screening is followed by a Q&A.

On Friday 20 November at 7pm, Juvenescence (dir. Mitchell Law), fresh from the 42nd Boston Film Festival, brings a cast of familiar faces to a comedy about four Aussie high-school students in their last days before graduation. Peter Phelps (Stingers, Lantana), Denise Roberts (G.P., The Dish, Packed to the Rafters) and Jonny Pasvolsky (McLeod’s Daughters, Westworld, Mortdecai) star alongside Felix Williamson (The Great Gatsby, Peter Rabbit, Hawke), who co-wrote the film with Law.

The festival closes on Saturday 21 November at 7pm with The Birthday Trip (dir. James Robert Woods), a darkly funny satire about three well-off millennial couples whose joint 30th birthday at a luxury farmstay falls apart. The cast includes Ben Gerrard, Nicola Frew, Luke Jacobz and David Quirk. The awards ceremony and closing night party follow at 8:45pm.

Through the Week

Between the opening and closing films, the program runs features, documentaries and an animation session, plus mid-length sessions and a shorts package every day from Sunday 15 to Saturday 21 November. Filmmakers will join a number of sessions for Q&As after their films.

Film Trivia Night is on Thursday 19 November at 7:30pm.

Local Films and Awards

Central Coast films screen right across the week, in the same sessions as the national and international selections rather than in a separate local session. Every submission category will be awarded, along with two awards for local talent:

Central Coast Filmmaker of the Year: $1,000 from Sara Lee, plus a first year of Screenworks membership and a full-access ticket to the next Regional to Global.
Young Central Coast Filmmaker of the Year: $1,000 from the University of Newcastle.

Nominees will be announced on Thursday 19 November, and winners presented on closing night.

Festival Partners

The 2026 festival is supported by Sara Lee, Screenworks, the University of Newcastle, Creative Lawyers, Gosford RSL, Avid, Fade In, MUBI, Mt Yengo Wines, Eastcoast Beverages and Six String Brewing.