Skip to main content
The Golden Spurtle film image; man lifting his sleeve to show off his bicep/tattoo

The Golden Spurtle

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

Dating back to neolithic times, few culinary traditions have survived as long as the hearty bowl of morning porridge. Despite its simple recipe of oats, salt and water, there is a lot that can vary. Each year the sleepy highland village of Carrbridge awakens with excitement as locals and competitors from around the globe vie for the honour of winning The Golden Spurtle in the World Porridge Making Championships. For aging, charismatic, and soon-to-retire Charlie Miller, this competition means so much more than just a bowl of steaming oats. With ailing health but a responsibility to his fellow porridge committee members, Charlie is on a mission to secure the future of the championships — and his own legacy.

Against the backdrop of the breathtaking Scottish Highlands and infused with whimsical humour of an eclectic cast, Constantine Costi’s warm-hearted documentary captures the humanity of village life and those who visit with spurtle in hand. The Golden Spurtle is an ode to finding the greatest meaning in the smallest things.

 

Media Partner

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

UK/Australia

Year

2025

Language

English

18+
75 min
Comedy Documentary
Hopscotch Films UK, Hytra Films, Screen Australia

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Producer

Rebecca Lamond, John Archer

Cinematography

Dimitri Zaunders

Editor

James Alcock

VIFF Logo

Constantine Costi

Constantine Costi is an award-winning director and writer working across film and opera. His 2025 feature documentary The Golden Spurtle was selected to premiere in Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX. His film A Delicate Fire for Pinchgut Opera, based on the madrigals of Barbara Strozzi, was awarded Best Australian Feature Film at the Sydney Women’s Film Festival, and the ATOM Award’s Best Experimental Film. He is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Late Fame

Dir. Kent Jones
96 min

Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Memory of Princess Mumbi

Dir. Damien Hauser
80 min

In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Rosetta

Dir. Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
93 min

A teenager tries to change her dire circumstances in this overwhelming naturalistic drama from the Dardenne brothers, winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Actress awards at Cannes, 1999.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Lessons of Darkness
Lessons of Darkness film image; smoke pillars rising from the ground

Lessons of Darkness

Dir. Werner Herzog
54 min

Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Beau Travail

Dir. Claire Denis
93 min

Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

But I'm a Cheerleader

Dir. Jamie Babbit
85 min

Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre