Chatting with New Zealand’s sell-out Aotearoa Surf Film Festival – a melting pot of surf culture and creativity

It’s hard to think of much that sounds cooler than a surf film festival. We’re just putting that out there. Which is why we loved getting to chat with Louis Murphy-Harris, Event Director of Aotearoa Surf Film Festival (ASFF) – a touring festival that travels around 26 surf destinations across New Zealand. Now in its thirteenth year, ASFF showcases a carefully curated selection of international and Kiwi surf feature films, documentaries and short films. Over the years, the festival has seen the New Zealand surf film scene evolve into a truly thriving community of diverse and talented creatives.

Read on to learn all about what goes into organising an inspiring touring festival like this one. There are some great insights here for budding festival planners – with some particularly useful nuggets of wisdom around working with volunteers, and growing a great event that keeps attendees coming back.

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✅ Key takeaways

💪 If you build it, they will come… Louis talks about how attracting amazing sponsors isn’t about chasing money, but about creating a truly amazing festival that brands want to be a part of.

🙌 The same thinking applies to attracting passionate volunteers. Louis says their event is naturally appealing to those who are interested in surfing and surf film (and it also helps to make sure any volunteer roles are fun and people facing).

🎥 We loved learning about what makes an incredible surf film – hint: it’s about so much more than nice shots of people surfing. You’ll have to read the interview to find out more about Aotearoa Surf Film Festival’s screening process 🏄! 

So, what’s Aotearoa Surf Film Festival all about?

The Aotearoa Surf Film Festival comprises a series of surf film events held annually at the end of summer across New Zealand – celebrating the best of surf culture, surf cinema and our connection with the environment. In true Kiwi style, we take a curated selection of international and kiwi surf feature films, documentaries and short films to the masses! This is a touring film festival across every surf region in New Zealand, with 26 shows around the country.

Sounds amazing! How did the festival first come about?

We first created the festival 13 years ago. Ultimately, we wanted to provide a platform for local surf storytelling. Back in the day the tour was about 10 shows, now it is 26 shows across 12 weeks. A big milestone last year was that every single event sold out. During the early years the festival mostly had international films because not many Kiwis were putting films out, now it’s predominantly Kiwi content which is really impressive. 

We’d love to know – what makes a great surf film? What does your panel look for when it comes to shortlisting entries? 

For me, a surf film has to have a solid theme or storyline. A lot of the films that get submitted are just of guys surfing and getting barrels. That’s great, but not for two hours. Our judges rate films on the following criteria, giving each a score out of 10:

• Cinematography
• Quality of the story
• Quality of surfing
• Innovation
• Positive environmental message
• Diversity in surfers and surf culture
• Soundtrack

Tell us a bit about what goes into planning and executing your festival… 

It’s crazy how much time goes into it. Trying to work with and find sponsors alone can be very time consuming. 

We have 10 amazing companies that are supporting the tour this year, with 26 shows, and three free outdoor films. There are a lot of logistics to work out even before the films are selected. We definitely know what works venue-wise, but every year we like to try a new location or a venue just to dip our toes in and see how it goes. 

The Aotearoa Surf Film Festival Screening Panel is made up of a collection of kiwi surf legends, with a recognised passion for surfing. Their backgrounds cover a wide ranging spectrum from the worlds of surfing and media. The screening panel votes on which short film entries should be entered into the festival. Craig Levers and Gav Bisman have been on the panel every year! Amazing. We also have Photographer/Videographer, Amber Jones and 

Surfer/Pro Snowboarder, Christy Prior on the team!

How do you go about recruiting volunteers?

I always let volunteers come to me. Because the festival centers around surfing, we are all connected through the love of the ocean and surf, so it’s great to have that common ground from the get go! Volunteers want to be there to help, so it’s super important to give people a really clear and fun job that’s people-facing. I’d say to anyone looking to work with great volunteers – don’t make their jobs too hard! We like to ensure things are nice and fun for our volunteers and that they get to enjoy the films too.

You work with some impressive sponsors – how do you go about securing such great collaborations? 

Thanks, I’m really stoked to have such a lineup of global and Kiwi companies supporting the ASFF. It’s been a mix of companies reaching out to me and me reaching out. The key is to not simply chase money, but to connect with these companies because there is a common goal and kaupapa (principles) there. In terms of securing the sponsors, I think it’s important to let the event do the selling. Create a great event that genuinely connects with its audience and you won’t have an issue finding a sponsor or two!

How do you market your festival?

Thankfully after 13 years we have a great reputation and have a solid database and festival return rate.

Now let’s talk ticketing – why choose Ticket Tailor as your ticketing partner? 

Because you guys are amazing! I love how easy it is to change and customize our event listings. And your customer support is incredible. 

We really like Ticket Tailor’s Products feature too, which helps us to sell merchandise at the point of ticket sale (we’ve got some cool ASFF t-shirts!). The free ticket scanning app has also been a massive help. It makes it so easy to keep track of attendees at each event, and really streamlines the whole entry process. Keep up the great work team!

That we will! Thanks for chatting with us, Louis.

Find out more about Aotearoa Surf Film Festival (ASFF) >

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