Juries announced for films in competition at ttff/15

The juries that will decide the two main competitive sections at the 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), which takes place from 15–29 September, have been announced.

Each jury is comprised of three members. The first jury will determine the best feature-length films (fiction and documentary) from the Caribbean and also from Trinidad and Tobago, while the second will decide the best short films (fiction and documentary) from the Caribbean as well as Trinidad and Tobago.

The jury that will choose the Amnesty International Film Prize, for the Caribbean film that best highlights a human-rights issue, has also been chosen. This jury is also comprised of three members.

The members of the three ttff/15 juries are as follows.

Features
Shonali Bose is a filmmaker. Her debut narrative feature film, Amu (2005), opened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Bose’s second feature film, Margarita, With a Straw (2014; ttff/15), opened at the Toronto International Film Festival to great acclaim.

Jaie Laplante is the Director of the Miami International Film Festival, a position he has held since 2010. He began his career as a critic and journalist in Canada in the late 1980s. He was appointed to the Miami-Dade County Film & Entertainment Advisory Board in 2013.

Nicole Guillemet served as Vice-President of the Sundance Institute and Co-Director of the Sundance Film Festival for over fifteen years. She is an executive producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Square (2013).

The features jury will adjudicate the following categories:

Best Feature Film – Fiction
Best Feature Film – Documentary
Best Trinidad and Tobago Feature Film – Fiction
Best Trinidad and Tobago Feature Film – Documentary

Shorts
Diana Cadavid is a Programming Associate at the Toronto International Film Festival, where she has provided support for the Ibero-American programme for the past six editions. She is also Programming Manager for the International Film Festival of Panama.

Romola Lucas is the Co-Founder of the Caribbean Film Academy (CaFA), a Brooklyn-based not-for-profit organisation working to increase the visibility of Caribbean filmmakers both in the region and in the diaspora.

Percy Pinedo is the Director of the Curaçao International Film Festival Rotterdam. A native of Curaçao, he is project leader of all projects of the Fundashon Bon Intenshon (Foundation for Good Intention).

The shorts jury will adjudicate the following categories:

Best Short Film – Fiction
Best Short Film – Documentary
Best Trinidad and Tobago Short Film – Fiction
Best Trinidad and Tobago Short Film – Documentary

Amnesty International Human Rights Prize
Blanca Granados is Head of Industry at the Cartagena International Film Festival in Colombia, curator of the Ibero-American section of the International Film Festival of India in Goa, and Director of Public Relations for the International Film Festival of Panama.

Jason Nathu is an attorney-at-law and a tutor at the Legal Aid Clinic at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. He is also responsible for the Human Rights Law Clinic, in which he trains students in human rights education and advocacy.

Chiara Sangiorgio joined Amnesty International’s global death penalty team in 2008, and has since then coordinated its campaign for the abolition of the death penalty. She has also coordinated Amnesty International’s work in support of the UN General Assembly’s resolutions on a moratorium on the death penalty.

The ttff/15 awards ceremony will take place on Sunday 27 September in Port of Spain.

Image: the ttff/15 jurors, clockwise from the top left corner: Shonali Bose, Jaie Laplante, Nicole Guillemet, Percy Pinedo, Chiara Sangiorgio, Jason Nathu, Blanca Granados, Diana Cadavid, Romola Lucas