Travelling Shorts Film Festival coming to Kāpiti

Elliot Weir speaking at last year's Travelling Shorts Film Festival in Vanacouver, Canada.

THINK Global School, an international travelling school with students from all over the world, is holding its seventh annual Travelling Shorts Film Festival in a seventh country — New Zealand.

This year it is being held in Kāpiti, thanks to student director Elliot Weir who calls Kāpiti home despite having spent a lot of his young life living in different countries.

"I'm excited to have the festival in my home town this year as it means my family and friends from here can attend and see.

"I am also looking forward to seeing meaningful stories or issues highlighted that are relevant to Kāpiti and New Zealand as a whole," he said.

"Kāpiti is a hotbed of creativity including film, however a lot of the events that surround this creativity tend to be held in Wellington.

"We hope the festival will not only recognise the efforts of young people in film but also show people from all over what the Kāpiti has to offer."

Started in 2011 by a group of students from THINK, Travelling Shorts Film Festival has steadily grown over the years, increasing in attendees and submissions with 1577 films submitted last year.

Elliot has been involved since 2015 and took over as creative director last year, in charge of the 2017 festival held in Vancouver, Canada.

"I entered my own film the year before I became involved behind the scenes."

It was about Greek mythology and the notion of adventure and it won one of the categories.

"However that was in the earlier days of the festival when we only received around 25 films.

"Directing the festival last year was a big responsibility and it was both an honour and a challenge."

The Travelling Shorts Film Festival will be held on December 14 at Event Cinemas Coastlands from 6.30pm to 9pm.

With New Zealand the host country this year the festival will have a special category for New Zealand students under 25.

"The event is a chance to showcase the brilliant work of young short filmmakers in New Zealand and abroad who tell meaningful stories or highlight important issues with their films," Elliot said.

"The entries we receive are so diverse and wide-ranging, which I think is fantastic.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing short films from young people in Kāpiti submitted to the festival."

With free entry and awards for the winners, the festival will showcase talent from New Zealand and around the world.

Any films made in the last two years and under 15 minutes long are eligible and need to be submitted before October 22.