Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

T&T Film Festival Director Bruce Paddington said he was pleased to note that the Festival has become part of T&T’s cultural calendar and promised not to disappoint those who have eagerly awaited the event.

He was addressing the gala audience at the opening of the Festival on September 20.

Paddington said the Festival offers some of the best films from the Caribbean, Caribbean diaspora and World Cinema. Even though the Festival is only a week long, films can be seen at MovieTowne in Port of Spain and Tobago, UWI, COSTAATT campuses and venues in Arima and Tobago, bringing the films to many different parts of the country. Paddington was particularly excited about the partnership with COSTAATT, who is sponsoring the Youth Jury Prize and will be developing a Future Critics program at the School of Journalism. He said the Festival has set up industry events for local and international film-makers to meet and learn from each other. Paddington was pleased to be part of an effort to show people that there are more options than Hollywood and Bollywood, “where we can see ourselves on screen.”

Marketing Director for Presenting Sponsor, FLOW, Cindy Ann Gatt, said the company, which has sponsored the ttFF for the past eight years, will be sponsoring them into 2019. She said the company is gratified to be able to contribute to the support of the local film industry and urged corporate T&T and theatre-owners to sponsor and show more local film, respectively. Gatt said the company will be hosting a session for local film-makers to explain how films can be viewed on their on-demand service, and announced that all proceeds from these films will go directly to the film-makers.

Producer and Director of “Play the Devil,” which opened the ttFF, Abigail Hadeed and Maria Govan, thanked their cast, crew, the Paramin community and each other for their support in bringing the film to life. The gala audience was comprised of investors, sponsors, film directors and cast and crew of the various local and international films in the Festival.