In a move that is ex­pect­ed to pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant growth with­in the bur­geon­ing lo­cal and re­gion­al film in­dus­try, the T&T Film Fes­ti­val (TTFF) is set to cre­ate a Caribbean Film Mart and Vir­tu­al Mar­ket­place (Re­gion­al Film Data­base), it was an­nounced re­cent­ly.

The project is be­ing made pos­si­ble with the fi­nan­cial con­tri­bu­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union via the Eu­ro­pean De­vel­op­ment Fund and the as­sis­tance of the ACP Group of States.A re­lease from the TTFF said this ground­break­ing ini­tia­tive, the first of its kind in the re­gion, will see the TTFF de­vel­op struc­tures that will al­low Caribbean films and film­mak­ers greater vis­i­bil­i­ty and op­por­tu­ni­ties in the glob­al film in­dus­try by in­creas­ing pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty and ac­cess to mar­kets.

The Caribbean Film Mart and Vir­tu­al Mar­ket­place are ex­pect­ed to strength­en the pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of Caribbean films through two main ac­tions: on the one side, the im­ple­men­ta­tion of a film mar­ket through the frame­work of the an­nu­al Film Fes­ti­val and, on the oth­er, the de­vel­op­ment of an on­line data­base of re­gion­al films and film­mak­ers.

Both projects will be launched at the Film Fes­ti­val in 2015.The on­line data­base will, in the first in­stance, com­prise in­de­pen­dent fea­ture-length films made in and about the Caribbean, and will act as a re­source for film­mak­ers, pro­duc­ers, schol­ars and in­dus­try pro­fes­sion­als.The data­base will be ac­ces­si­ble in Eng­lish, Span­ish and French.

The Caribbean Film Mart will bring to­geth­er ten re­gion­al film­mak­ers with projects in de­vel­op­ment.These film­mak­ers will be giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to meet with in­ter­na­tion­al film fi­nanciers, dis­trib­u­tors, broad­cast­ers, sales agen­cies, pro­duc­ers, film fes­ti­val pro­gram­mers, pub­lic re­la­tions con­sul­tants, film jour­nal­ists and crit­ics–all with the aim of cre­at­ing pro­fes­sion­al re­la­tion­ships and part­ner­ships that will en­able the pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of the ten par­tic­i­pat­ing projects.

At the end of the Film Mart, one project will al­so be award­ed a cash prize.The call for sub­mis­sions will be made in ear­ly 2015.Dur­ing the Film Fes­ti­val, ttff/14, which runs from Sep­tem­ber 16-30, stake­hold­ers' meet­ings and train­ing ini­tia­tives will be held, and ex­pec­ta­tions for sub­mis­sions for the 2015 Caribbean Film Mart will be out­lined.

The Caribbean Film Mart and Vir­tu­al Mar­ket­place are be­ing im­ple­ment­ed in as­so­ci­a­tion with the Fun­daci�n Glob­al Democ­ra­cia y Dessarol­lo from the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, the As­so­ci­a­tion for the De­vel­op­ment of Art Cin­e­ma and Prac­tice in Guade­loupe, the Foun­da­tion of New Latin Amer­i­can Cin­e­ma, Fes­ti­val R�gion­al et In­ter­na­tion­al du Cin�ma de Guade­loupe, and the Me­di­at­e­ch for Women Di­rec­tors, based in Cu­ba.Founder and Fes­ti­val Di­rec­tor of the TTFF, Dr Bruce Padding­ton, said, "What an ex­cit­ing de­vel­op­ment this is for the re­gion­al film in­dus­try!We are over­joyed, not on­ly to be the re­cip­i­ents of this sig­nif­i­cant grant, but al­so, once again, to help lead the way in mak­ing Caribbean cin­e­ma a vi­able en­ter­prise, one that as­sists our film­mak­ers in telling our sto­ries and tak­ing them to the world."

Daniela Tra­macere, Charg� d'Af­faires of the Del­e­ga­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union to Trinidad and To­ba­go, not­ed: "The EU re­mains com­mit­ted to re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion in the Caribbean and eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion here in T&T.This grant fol­lows the log­ic of a wider EU sup­port pro­gramme to boost the ser­vice in­dus­tries and we see a lot of po­ten­tial, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the cre­ative sec­tor.We are de­light­ed to col­lab­o­rate once more with the TTFF, which we have sup­port­ed over the years."