Sand Dollars, the tender story of an elderly French woman in a relationship with a much younger woman from the Dominican Republic, won the Best Fiction Feature prize last evening at the awards ceremony for the 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff/15).

Directed by Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, the film beat three other films in the official competition to nab the coveted prize.

The Best Documentary Feature went to Aleksandra Maciuszek’s Casa Blanca, the moving tale of an elderly woman and her middle-aged son who has Down syndrome, as they navigate daily life in Havana.

Casa Blanca also received a special mention for artistic merit by the Amnesty International Human Rights Prize jury.

In the Trinidad and Tobago film categories, Sean Hodgkinson’s Trafficked, about three friends on holiday who become drug mules, walked away with the Best Fiction Feature prize, while Kim Johnson’s Re-percussions: An African Odyssey, about attempts to propagate T&T’s national instrument in Nigeria, won Best Documentary Feature.

The prize for best project at the first ever Caribbean Film Mart went to Kidnapping Inc of Haiti, by Gaethan Chancy, Bruno Mourral and Gilbert Mirambeau, Jr.

Here is a full list of the awards:

Best Film Awards – sponsored by the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited
Best Fiction Feature: Sand Dollars, Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, Dominican Republic/Mexico/Argentina
Best Documentary Feature: Casa Blanca, Aleksandra Maciuszek, Cuba/Mexico/Poland
Best Short Film, Narrative: Mommy Water, Julien Silloray, Guadeloupe
Best Short Film, Documentary: Papa Machete, Jonathan David Kane, Haiti/USA/Barbados

Best Trinidad and Tobago Film Awards – sponsored by the Film Company of Trinidad and Tobago (FilmTT)
Best Trinidad and Tobago Fiction Feature: Trafficked, Sean Hodgkinson
Best Trinidad and Tobago Documentary Feature: Re-percussions: An African Odyssey, Kim Johnson
Best Trinidad and Tobago Short Film, Fiction: Fade to Black, Christopher Guinness
Best Trinidad and Tobago Short Film, Documentary: Riding Bull Cart, Rhonda Chan Soo

People’s Choice Awards – Sponsored by Flow
People’s Choice Award, Best Narrative Feature: Sally’s Way, Joanne Johnson, T&T
People’s Choice Award, Best Documentary Feature: Vanishing Sail, Alexis Andrews, Antigua
People’s Choice Award, Best Short Film: City on the Hill, Patricia Mohammed and Michael Mooleedhar, T&T

Amnesty International Human Rights Prize: My Father’s Land, Miquel Galofré and Tyler Johnston, Bahamas/Haiti/Trinidad and Tobago

Amnesty International Human Rights Prize, Special Mention for Artistic Merit: Casa Blanca, Aleksandra Maciuszek, Cuba/Mexico/Poland

RBC: Focus Filmmakers’ Immersion Pitch Prize: Kojo McPherson, Guyana

Caribbean Film Mart Best Project Award: Kidnapping Inc, Gaethan Chancy, Bruno Mourral, Gilbert Mirambeau, Jr

Best Emerging Trinidad and Tobago Filmmaker (prize sponsored by bpTT): Michael Rochford

BPTT Youth Jury Prize for Best Film: Girlhood, Céline Sciamma, France

BPTT Youth Jury Prize Honourable Mention: Güeros, Alonzo Ruizpalacios, Mexico

BPTT Youth Jury Prize, Special Mention for Cinematography: The Greatest House in the World, Ana V. Bojórquez and Lucía Carreras, Guatemala/Mexico

Image: A still from Sand Dollars

The trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) is presenting a series of film screenings to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the country’s independence, sponsored by The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited.

The screenings take place over three days in San Fernando, Port of Spain and Tobago, respectively. All screenings are free and open to the public.

The first screening takes place on Thursday 28 August, in the observatory at the San Fernando Hill Recreational Centre, from 7.00pm. The films to be screened are the documentaries Julia & Joyce (Sonja Dumas/2010/60’), the story of two pioneers of dance in T&T, Julia Edwards and Joyce Kirton; and The Strange Luck of VS Naipaul (Adam Low/2008/78’), a portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning author.

Then on Friday 29 August from 7.00pm, at the audiovisual room at NALIS in Port of Spain, there will be a screening of Fire in Babylon (Stevan Riley/2011/87’), the inspiring story of the all-conquering West Indies cricket team of the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

Finally, on Sunday 31 August at 3.00pm at MovieTowne, Tobago, two films will be screened: The Audacity of the Creole Imagination (Kim Johnson/2010/13’) and
‘70: Remembering a Revolution (Alex de Verteuil, Elizabeth Cadiz-Topp/2011/120’). The first film looks at milestones in the history of the creation of the steelpan, while ’70 is a thoroughgoing account of the black power uprising of 1970.

Doors for the first two screenings open at 6.00pm. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Technical services will be provided by North Eleven, the ttff’s official screening partner.

Image: A still from Fire in Babylon