And the GIFF 2018 Award winners are…

By Guest Writer Blog post written by Geocaching HQ’s GIFF guru, Erin
16 films became finalists in the 2018 Geocaching International Film Festival. The votes have been counted and we are excited to present this year’s film festival awards, The Signal Award and the People’s Choice Award.

First, The Signal Award, selected by a panel of Community Volunteer Reviewers from around the world. The Signal Award winner was chosen for its overall excellence as a geocaching short film. The judges considered production quality, content, creativity, and contribution to the global geocaching community.
This year’s Signal Award winner is…

Congratulations to the filmmaker, treasurehuntergd!
“TFTC” follows a geocacher on a full day of geocaching. We all like to go geocaching. But sometimes it’s just one of those days when nothing really works, all you do is make a blunder. This movie is about a day like this.
Here’s what some Community Volunteer Reviewers had to say about this film:
“Dramatic, creative, very informative, very funny! Master of satire! Very nice storytelling.”
“This film checked off all the criteria: Production Quality – Outstanding, inventive with both visually and audibly. Content – Funny, presented quality hides, community interaction. Creativity – Caching gone wrong, quality hides, thrills and excitement. Contribution to the global community – Every cacher could relate or base feelings from their experiences, While it showed some of the dangers of Geocaching, it showed obvious clues for how these could have been avoided so I felt that it educated and showed Geocaching in a positive light, with some fun. I also think that involving an event really sold me on this. ”
For the first time ever, GIFF Event attendees were invited to vote for their favorite film in a global vote for the 2018 People’s Choice Award. We received an incredible response with over 8,000 geocachers voting for their favorite film. Thank you for participating!
This year’s People’s Choice winner is…

Congratulations to the filmmakers, weellu & Harjus!
“Geocaching documentary: Winter caching in Finland” shows you what it is like to geocache in winter time when there is a lot of snow and ice. The film is almost a mockumentary and the hero of the story tries to show winter caching from a funny and unique perspective.
Here’s what some GIFF Event attendees had to say about this film:
“We had a foot of snow in Colorado the day of the viewing party. The next day I went out to find a cache and was laughing so hard as I DNF’d multiple times, while suffering with cold hands and feet, all the time thinking you had made snow caching seem like so much fun.”
“The cacher from Finland was adorable. I would like to see more short movies from him explaining the Geocaching world.”
“Great geocaching in a beautiful Finnish scenery spiced with some humor in the end of the film.”
“It was really funny. Especially the ice fishing was great. This film made me laugh out loud.”
See for yourself and watch the GIFF 2018 finalist films here.