- \n
- There were 61 filmmakers from 21 countries who submitted a film for consideration this year.<\/li>\n
- 20 films from 10 countries were selected as finalists.<\/li>\n
- The final films were viewed at 634 Events across 92 countries, territories, and regions.<\/li>\n
- Event attendees earned 16,335 (and counting!) GIFF 2025 souvenirs.\n
- \n
- If you attended a GIFF Event, don\u2019t forget to log it!<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And now, the moment you\u2019ve all been waiting for\u2026 the GIFF Award winners!<\/strong><\/p>\n
The votes have been counted, and we are excited to present this year\u2019s film festival awards: the Signal Award and the People\u2019s Choice Award.<\/p>\n
The Signal Award winner is selected by a panel of geocaching community volunteers from around the world. They are asked to consider production quality, content, creativity, and contribution to the global geocaching community.<\/p>\n
The People\u2019s Choice Award is chosen by geocachers like you! Nearly 10,000 geocachers voted in this year\u2019s People\u2019s Choice Award for their favorite film.<\/p>\n
This year, an interesting phenomenon occurred: volunteers and geocachers chose the same winner.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Signal Award and People\u2019s Choice Award winner is\u2026<\/p>\n
HARD WORK<\/a> by Harogs Team
\n(harogs<\/a>, geocachingclown<\/a>, and commge<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-helper-656x394.jpg\")
Hard Work by Harogs team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n This Swiss film answered the age-old question: \u201cHow do gadget caches work?\u201d They\u2019re powered by tiny workers, of course! These brave employees work day and night to operate the mechanisms that power the most complex caches.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what volunteers and geocachers said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a truly unique perspective to how gadget caches work. The sets and the props used in the film were amazing and it had a bit surprising sad ending.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond its technical achievements, the content of “HARD WORK” is inspiring. The film shifts the focus from the finder to the creator. It celebrates the often-unseen true “hard work” that goes into designing, building, and maintaining a high-quality, memorable cache. It\u2019s a homage to the cache owners who contribute their passion and time to the community through hiding such caches.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cGreat to see how gadget caches work in the inside ;-)\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cReally great idea, brilliantly executed, even though I’m very sad that the buddy was kidnapped \ud83d\ude41 I hope that all the hard work will soon be rewarded with a new buddy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
Honorable mentions<\/strong><\/p>\n
With so many great films this year, we wanted to acknowledge some of the other popular films, as voted by volunteers and geocachers.<\/p>\n
- \n
- The BisonBuddy5000<\/a> by Skimbosh<\/a><\/li>\n
- If You Hide It\u2026<\/a> by Team Vlogger (geocachingvlogger<\/a> and Seemyshell<\/a>)<\/li>\n
- Dogeza<\/a> by _nokos_<\/a> team<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all the filmmakers for contributing to an amazing season of GIFF fun. Watch all the GIFF 2025 finalist films<\/a> on our YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
Finally, we\u2019d like to issue a correction and apology to finalist JustCarlo<\/a>. The GIFF 2025 title page for his film Never A Straight Path<\/a> listed his location as the USA. This should have been Canada.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-dogeza-656x369.jpg\")
Dogeza by nokos team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Thank yous all around<\/strong><\/p>\n
A huge thanks to all our filmmakers who shared their films with the global community this year. What a fantastic array of voices, ideas, and creativity!<\/p>\n
Another big thank you to the Event hosts and behind-the-scenes volunteers who made GIFF 2025 a blockbuster hit! Take a look at some of these GIFF Events from around the world:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \n
- \n
- More than 110 participants attended GCBBK0A<\/a>, making it the largest GIFF in Saxony-Anhalt.\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kupferzwerg.jpg\")
Image by Kupferzwerg.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n - Attendees at GCBDPNF<\/a> rolled out the red carpet for the GIFF Gnomes at their Event in Katsdorf, Austria!\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rkfocus-656x437.jpg\")
Image by rkfocus.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n - The filmmakers behind the film \u201cHARD WORK\u201d co-hosted GCB3ZMK<\/a> in Sarnen, Switzerland. This Event featured musical accompaniment by the pianist who composed the film’s score, and participants were able to log their experiences in the original logbook from the film!\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/harogs-656x370.jpg\")
Image by harogs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n - Despite the rain, geocachers turned out for GCBDC2V<\/a>, a soggy GIFF Event in Seattle, USA. As umbrellas and coats dried, attendees enjoyed popcorn, GIFF bingo, and prizes!\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cachingcants-656x492.jpg\")
Image by cachingcants.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n - Slovenian geocachers congregated in Ljubljana to attend GCBD80Z<\/a> and its after-party. Organizers conducted a thorough ranked-voting system to determine their own People\u2019s Choice winner.\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SLO-Geocaching-656x435.jpg\")
Image by SLO Geocaching Klub.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s time once again to press \u201cpause\u201d for another year. The Geocaching International Film Festival will return in 2027.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s never too early to start dusting off those clapboards, brainstorming your film ideas, and practicing your camera work! We can\u2019t wait to see what new stories the community creates next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once again, geocachers came together to celebrate the comedy, drama, and heart-pounding action of geocaching on the big screen. The Geocaching International Film Festival reminds us that geocaching is about the shared, universal experiences it offers. The stories of geocaching are translatable across the entire global geocaching community, no matter what language you sign the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":153570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[192,2070],"series":[],"class_list":["post-153562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giff","tag-giff","tag-giff-2025"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/d3mo08i005h0zn.cloudfront.net\/blog\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Blog-800x450-2.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/inside-geocaching-hq-podcast","embedCode":"
That\u2019s a wrap! GIFF 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>
- Attendees at GCBDPNF<\/a> rolled out the red carpet for the GIFF Gnomes at their Event in Katsdorf, Austria!\n
- More than 110 participants attended GCBBK0A<\/a>, making it the largest GIFF in Saxony-Anhalt.\n
- If You Hide It\u2026<\/a> by Team Vlogger (geocachingvlogger<\/a> and Seemyshell<\/a>)<\/li>\n
- The BisonBuddy5000<\/a> by Skimbosh<\/a><\/li>\n
- If you attended a GIFF Event, don\u2019t forget to log it!<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n