It was an event that both entertained and educated.

The festival began on Thursday last week with a day of film workshops for primary students. 

Secondary kids had their turn on Friday, before the entertainment, film screenings and awards presentation in the evening by judges Dean Wells, Terence Sadler, Ruth Hessey and Garry Waddell.

Festival co-ordinator Georgia Standerwick said they split the primary and secondary students for their own workshops this year.

“They were really good. We had about 60 kids from Gum Flat and Ross Hill but we had about 230, possibly more on the Friday for secondary. So that was absolutely huge. I think that was actually as much as we can handle,” she said.

Putting that new knowledge in their back pockets, the attention turned to the films that captured the judges’ attention for the awards.

There are four main categories in the festival. ‘Tell me something factual’ saw Inverell High School student Tayla Dawson in first place for secondary school with her film Happiness is a Journey. Bobby Wighton of Macintyre High School took first place with her submission Battle Scars in ‘Tell me something fictional’, with Macintyre student Amelia Hersee collecting a highly commended for her film Our Inside Tears.

Another Macintyre High student, Jon Gaukroger, swept the animation first place and highly commended award with his films Red vs Black, and Trampoline. 

Holy Trinity had a winner with student Kristen Sparke in the category ‘Dream it, Dance it, Do it’ with her film Bubblegum, and fellow student Cailey Dodd was highly commended in the category with her film The Chase.

“They were just astounded by the talent, especially Gum Flat. They’ve got some great little actors in their group. And the TAFE kids,” Georgia said 

“Bingara itself, they thought it was such an amazing place and what a great thing it is for young people. So they’re all keen to come back next year.”