It all started when…

The Geocaching International Film Festival (GIFF) began as part of the 2013 Geocaching Block Party at Geocaching HQ in Seattle. Screened in a nearby park, the first GIFF Event was a hit with attendees. So, we decided to do it all again for the 2014 Geocaching Block Party.

As anyone who visits Seattle knows, rain is always in the forecast. In 2015, all of the finalist films were ready to go when the first raindrops began to fall. But the GIFF team came up with a fabulous alternative; they cancelled GIFF in the park and allowed geocachers to host GIFF Events to show the film reel in their own communities around the world.

Then, in 2020, GIFF took a brief ‘intermission’ for the health and safety of our participants. Instead, we put together a full length “Best of: GIFF” compilation from every year and shared it online for the geocaching community to enjoy from home.

They say sequels can never compete with the originals, but GIFF 2021 turned out to be just as good as the originals! With an extra year to create their videos, geocachers showed off their creativity and produced some spectacular films. Once again, the ever-flexible GIFF team decided to turn GIFF into a bi-annual event, giving the community plenty of time to dream up their next videos.

Thanks to the geocaching community, a small amateur film festival was able to grow into a global phenomenon with dozens of film submissions, hundreds of Events, and thousands of attendees year after year.

Now, here we are in 2025, eagerly looking forward to the next chapter of the GIFF series.

Check out each year’s finalists below: