Cameras rather than clean sets will roll for Tauranga's surfing community as the O'Neill Aotearoa Surf Film Festival returns to its roots today.

For the next two nights the annual festival is holding screenings of feature-length and short films showcasing a selection of international and Kiwi creations at the Tauranga Art Gallery.

The O'Neill Aotearoa Surf Film Festival is in Tauranga for the next two nights. Photo: Supplied.

Into its third successive year, the nationwide festival tour is the first dedicated surf film competition in New Zealand, with the aim of promoting the surf genre and inspiring future filmmakers.

And event director Nick Stevenson is rapt to be back in the Bay of Plenty, where the festival dream began, after whirlwind start to the tour.

'We are Bay of Plenty locals, and we live in Papamoa,” says Nick. 'We definitely consider the Mount and Tauranga as the home of the Aotearoa Surf Film Festival].

'It's just grown and grown over the last couple of years. Now we visit 15 cities over seven weeks, so it's become a much bigger tour than usual.”

Running in true kiwi style, the festival takes a curated selection of international surf feature films, documentaries and short films on a summer roadtrip to coastal towns celebrating the best of surf culture, surf cinema and Kiwis connecting with the environment.

In a change from previous years, the festival has moved away from opening in the Bay of Plenty, with Northland used due to the addition of 'quite a few” extra screenings in 2015.

Nick says the festival continues to prove popular with sold-out screenings in Auckland and Whitianga in the last week.

The two shows at the Tauranga Art Gallery run from 6.30-10pm on both nights (Wednesday and Thursday), before moving to Whakatane on Friday.

'We just want people to know we are back and would love them to come down and see what we have to offer in terms of surf films,” he adds.

'It's also kid-friendly as well. We have had a lot of young kids, which is unusual, but it's great to see them wanting to get involved and inspired to get into the water.”

Tickets and programming details for the O'Neill Aotearoa Surf Film Festival are available online at: www.asff.co.nz