Surf Film Festival Coming to San Diego

While the judges have not revealed the films that will show at the inaugural San Diego Surf Film Festival next month, a buzz is growing. On April 14, the Surf Film Festival committee will announce the 12 feature-length films and 20 shorts that will screen at surf and surf culture festival. The film fest will run May 11-14 at Bird’s Surf Shed in San Diego.

“This festival is all about promoting and congratulating the individuals who create surf cinema simply out of passion,” said Pierce Kavanagh, a bodysurfer and filmmaker from La Jolla. Kavanagh, his wife Petra and friend Ed Lewis co-founded the festival. The goal is also to bring the surfing community together.

“A lot of our friends are independent surf filmmakers and we started to notice that it was becoming harder and harder to make surf films as an independent art form,” he said in an announcement. “The motivation of the film festival is to help support the independent filmmaker, give them promotional opportunities, help place them into distribution deals and get the public behind them. Doing this will allow them to get their freedom back and ultimately we will have better films because of it.”

The San Diego Surf Film Festival is May 11-13 at Bird’s Surf Shed, 1091 West Morena Blvd., San Diego, CA 92110. The three-day event kicks off with a VIP party of May 10. The VIP party will feature surf related art and photography by local artists, and a showing of Innermost Limits of Pure Fun by George Greenough.

Tickets are $80 to $100 for an all access VIP pass for the full festival. VIP passes consist of access to all feature films, shorts, shaping demos, filmmaker panel discussions, art lounge and VIP private party. General admission tickets are $5 to $10. For additional ticket information visit sandiegosurfilmfestival.com.