As a leading sponsor of Trinidad and Tobago’s three major film festivals – trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), Animae Caribe Animation and Digital Media Festival and Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, FilmTT has encouraged and facilitated collaboration among these initiatives to produce an inaugural industry event entitled Film Festival Season.
The Film Festival Season brand therefore seeks to bring national awareness to and create heightened interest in the country’s thriving film industry while exemplifying FilmTT’s mandate to facilitate the development of the film industry in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2016, the Film Festival Season took place from September – November.
- Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival – 20th – 27th September: FilmTT has been a leading sponsor of this festival since its inception in 2006. The trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) is an annual event that celebrates films from and about the Caribbean and its diaspora, as well as from world cinema. The ttff also seeks to facilitate the growth of Caribbean cinema by offering wide-ranging industry programmes and networking opportunities. Among this year’s selection of films were two winning productions of FilmTT’s Smartphone Film Festival 2015, Good Ole’ Days and This Connect and a number of film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death.Apart from screenings, selected Caribbean filmmakers were also given the opportunity to learn from film professionals in the RBC Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion, a film development programme. At ttff’s 2016 closing awards ceremony, two FilmTT-sponsored films, Play The Devil & The Cutlass, won the top Trinidad & Tobago prizes for best feature film. Several local awardees at the ttff will also go on to showcase their films at other regional festivals, a trip sponsored by FilmTT to promote T&T film products worldwide.
- Animae Caribe – 24th – 29th October: Animae Caribe’s Animation and Digital Media Festival, which has been sponsored by FilmTT for 15 years is the Caribbean’s biggest and most prestigious animation festival. It provides a platform for the development of animators, as well as the exposure of animation as a viable business. The Animae Caribe Festival usually attracts top animators from studios such as Dreamworks, Aardman, Pixar, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon to the country to host workshops for potential, novice and professional animators.At the 2016 edition, headlining speakers were Rona Lui, an artist for the blockbuster film, Finding Dory and Brad Schiff, an animator for major projects such as The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. One of Animae Caribe’s main offerings is the Animated Ideas Boot Camp, a collaborative training and development project that encourages group participation for the development of animated series concepts for pitching and production. FilmTT’s sponsorship of this Festival is directed towards this Bootcamp given its industry development focus. This year, Trinbagonian group, The JK’S won the Best Animated Idea award and will go on to receive funding for marketing and promotion of its animated series, Scraps.
Animae Caribe continues to provide an outlet for innovative animators in the Caribbean to develop, expand and showcase their talents to a wider local and international audience with its special screenings, workshops and networking events.
- Green Screen: The Environmental Film Festival – 1st – 12th November: For the first time, FilmTT is a supporting partner of the Sustain T&T-hosted event, Green Screen The Environmental Film Festival. This is an annual film series that highlights crucial environmental issues via screenings of movies about environmental conservation, climate change, green energy, sustainable development and social justice. These films are shown free of charge to audiences all around Trinidad and Tobago.To foster local talent, Green Screen has developed their Films for a Better Place initiative which provides selected short film projects with technical support and small grants. Completed films will be shown at this year’s festival.
In addition to screenings, Green Screen is also hosting several panel discussions on issues facing the environment. Topics include “Art and Activism”, “The Big Idea – Life After Oil”, and a key discussion on the Beverage Container Bill, in line with this year’s theme, “The Big Picture”.