Beyond the Break: BBFF Brings Global Surf Stories to the Northern Rivers
Salt in Her Veins – Women’s Surf Films
From Bali and Senegal to Lennox Head and Angourie, Byron Bay International Film Festival’s 2026 surf cinema program explores the cultures, communities and coastlines shaped by the ocean.
Surfing may begin with the search for a wave, but its stories stretch far beyond the break.
This October, Byron Bay International Film Festival will bring a diverse collection of surf cinema to Stone & Wood Brewery and Brunswick Picture House, with films exploring culture, conservation, identity and the communities connected by the ocean.
Spanning coastlines from Bali, Japan and Senegal to Chile, Brazil and Australia, the program forms part of the festival’s 20th anniversary celebrations, taking place across the Northern Rivers from 16 to 25 October.
At the heart of the surf program are two nights at Stone & Wood, where filmmakers turn their attention to what happens when the places surfers love face growing pressures of their own.
Uluwatu transformed
The first Stone & Wood session on Thursday 22 October is headlined by the Australian premiere of Magic Island, accompanied by a Q&A and three international surf shorts.
Set in Uluwatu, Bali, the film explores the transformation of a once-remote fishing village into 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 examine the consequences of that extraordinary change.
At its centre is a question with particular resonance in the Northern Rivers: what happens when the world discovers – and changes – a place people love?
Three short films will take audiences from the traditions of Japanese surfboard shaping to the emerging surf culture of Senegal, before returning to Australia’s east coast.
Monozukuri (Japan Shapes) explores the dedication to craft and process found among Japanese surfboard shapers.
Nio Ko Bokk (This Belongs to All of Us) follows two young Senegalese men whose connection to surfing opens a wider story about community, opportunity and belonging.
The program then comes closer to home with ECAT 2026 (East Coast Activation Tour).
Following the World Surfing Conservation Conference on the Gold Coast, 22 surfers from nine countries embarked on a journey connecting 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 United States, Indonesia and Australia.
More than a road trip in search of waves, the journey became an exchange of surf cultures and a call to protect the breaks, coastlines and communities that sustain them.
A Latin American perspective
On Friday 23 October, Stone & Wood will look across the Pacific for Onda Latina – Latin Wave, featuring three Australian premieres from Chile and Brazil.
In the Chilean film Huiro, a surfer, his dog and a handmade camper travel 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.
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 a source of healing, resistance and hope.
Together, the two Stone & Wood sessions reveal a side of surf filmmaking increasingly concerned with life beyond the wave: culture and identity, environmental protection, development, craftsmanship and the communities for whom the ocean is much more than a playground.
Women take centre stage
The festival’s celebration of surf cinema will also reach Brunswick Picture House on Sunday 18 October with Salt in Her Veins – Women’s Surf Films.
The program 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, sharing stories of sisterhood, resilience and women carving out space in the line-up.
As Byron Bay International Film Festival marks two decades of cinema, these films reflect a relationship with the ocean that has always been part of the Northern Rivers identity while revealing how differently that connection is experienced around the world.
Surf cinema at BBFF 2026
Salt in Her Veins – Women’s Surf Films
Sunday 18 October, 6pm
Brunswick Picture House
Six short films celebrating women’s experiences in surf culture
Magic Island + Q&A + Surf Shorts
Thursday 22 October
Stone & Wood Brewery
Featuring Magic Island, Monozukuri (Japan Shapes), Nio Ko Bokk (This Belongs to All of Us) and ECAT 2026 (East Coast Activation Tour)
Onda Latina – Latin Wave
Friday 23 October
Stone & Wood Brewery
Featuring Huiro, O Chamado do Oceano (The Calling of the Ocean) and Ferocidade Maxima (Maximum Ferocity)
Byron Bay International Film Festival runs from 16 to 25 October 2026. Visit bbff.com.au for the complete program and tickets.