Cast members, production staff and well wishers gathered at the Central Bank Auditorium to celebrate the very best of the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival 2017, at its awards ceremony on Tuesday evening. After a hectic week of film screenings, talks and panel discussions, folks involved in the film industry got a chance to talk about, cheer on and congratulate the winner and runners-up.

Columbus Communications (Flow) was the festival’s presenting sponsor and its director of marketing Cindy Ann Gatt, said in her short address that the company being proud to see that cinemas were fully booked during the various screenings in Trinidad and in Tobago for the first time.

Filmmaker Michael Mooleedhar proudly walked away with two awards for his Green Days by the River, winning in the Best T&T Feature Film and People’s Choice Best Narrative Feature Film categories.

With the countdown on to the 2017 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (TTFF), the Festival team has issued an open invitation to film lovers to join them at their two pre-festival limes.

The first, this Friday, is at Drink! Lounge and Bistro, in Woodbrook. The following Friday— September 15—the lime moves to San Fernando at 519 Trinidad in the C3 Centre in San Fernando, a release said.

The limes provide an opportunity to meet filmmakers and others involved in the industry, find out about film screenings, to generally be part of the buzz and excitement that surrounds the Festival—and, according to the Festival, “get high on film.”

According to Azreena Khan, events and marketing coordinator at the TTFF, “this year we are particularly pleased to be heading to San Fernando for our first ever pre-festival lime in the South and we hope some of our regular party crew from the West will join us there.

With the countdown on to the 2017 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), the Festival team has issued an open invitation to film lovers to join them at their two pre-festival limes. The first, this Friday (08 September), is at Drink! Lounge and Bistro, in Woodbrook. The following Friday (15 September), the lime moves to south at at 519 Trinidad in the C3 Centre in San Fernando.

The limes provide an opportunity to meet filmmakers and others involved in the industry, find out about film screenings, to generally be part of the buzz and excitement that surrounds the Festival – and, according to the Festival, “get high on film.”

James O’Connor’s film To Be A Renegade, captures the story of the BP Renegades through an examination of the violent beginnings of pan, the era of change, and its present state as a positive influence on communities, with steelbands now travelling abroad as international ambassadors. Featuring players, founding members and supporters, the documentary funded by BP Trinidad and Tobago, seeks to show what it really means to be a Renegade.  As part of its support for the film, BPTT is sponsoring a free screening of To Be A Renegade on Friday 22 September, 8:30pm, at MovieTowne Port Of Spain. Tickets will be available from the box office on a first-come-first-served basis, at the start of the Festival.

T&T will present four feature-length films and over 34 short and experimental films during the T&T Film Festival (TTFF) from September 19-26.

One of those films, a movie adaptation of Michael Anthony’s Green Days by the River directed by Michael Mooleedhar and Christian James, will be the opening night film.

In a release last week, the festival announced most of its Caribbean line-up, which includes several award-winning and critically acclaimed films.

The festival will be held at MovieTowne Port-of-Spain, San Fernando and Tobago, as well as at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

The films from some of the Caribbean’s finest film makers include, from the Dominican Republic, Jose Maria Cabral’s Carpinteros (Woodpeckers), a high-octane, no-holds barred movie about a forbidden relationship conducted through prison bars and across the 200 yards of empty space dividing the male and female prisons in Santo Domingo. Carpinteros, which played at the Sundance Film Festival, has been described by critics as a “raw, intriguing and energetic blend of the tough and the tender.”

tt/ff is in search for the Best TT Film in Development

God Loves the Fighter, by T&T filmmaker Damian Marcano, screened to a packed audience Tuesday night, during the WeBeat Festival, at the St James Amphitheatre. The free screening was organised by the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) and sponsored by Flow. Among those in attendance were lead actors Abdi Waithe (the gangsta, Stone) and Muhammad Muwakil (the protagonist, Charlie), and supporting actress Tishanna Williams.

The award-winning film God Loves the Fighter, a gritty, urban drama by US-based, TT-born filmmaker Damian Marcano, will screen at We Beat’s We Film Night on Tuesday, June 6 at 7pm in tribute to the late Earl Crosby. The free screening, at the St James Amphitheatre, is presented by the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), courtesy its sponsor, Flow.

Hailed for its “non-conformist and thrilling voice”  by the UK’s Candid magazine and for its “slick cinematography” by the film magazine, Variety, God Loves the Fighter, played to sold out audiences at the ttff 2013, where it won the People’s Choice Award and the Best Local Feature Award.

It also went on to win the 2014 Yellow Robin Award at the Curaçao International Film Festival Rotterdam among others.

God Loves the Fighter tells the story of Charlie, a young man seeking to make ends meet on the streets of Port of Spain. Reluctantly, he takes a job from a gang leader as assistant to a drug courier. As he becomes entangled in a web of deceit, the ripple effects are felt across the city, complicating his attempts  at redemption.

Shot during the 2011 State of Emergency,  in an urgent and unflinching style, God Loves the Fighter was Marcano’s debut feature film. A Trinidadian who grew up in Morvant, Marcano moved to America at age 12, later enrolling as a pre-med student at Ohio State University, before moving to New York to become a web design programmer.

The deadline for filmmakers wishing to submit a film for screening at the 12th edition of the trinidad+tobago film festival (TTFF) – to be held from 19 – 26 September 2017, is fast approaching. Those wishing to submit a film must do so by the 15 May. A rough cut will be considered.

The Festival accepts submissions from Caribbean filmmakers, Caribbean filmmakers in the diaspora, and international filmmakers with films from or about the Caribbean or its diaspora. Submissions must have been produced after 01 January 2015.

All submissions must be made online, via the ttff Visitor Page at https://vp.eventival.eu/ttff/2017

There is no submission fee.

“The Tobago Jazz Film Festival is an initiative of the trinidad+tobago film festival and corporate sponsor, Flow. The 4 day (April 21-25) film festival will be held during the THA Division of Tourism, Culture and Transportation’s Tobago Jazz Experience and will feature films by Tobagonian filmmakers as well as international films with a focus on music. There will also be an all day industry workshop on Saturday 22 April at The Shaw Park Complex for Tobago-based filmmakers. Admission to all events is free …”