The re­gion’s pre­mier film fes­ti­val, Trinidad+To­ba­go film fes­ti­val (ttff) is back with a full cal­en­dar of events. This year’s fes­ti­val will see a re­turn to in-per­son screen­ings and events af­ter two years on­line due to pan­dem­ic re­stric­tions.

With an im­pres­sive pan­el of film pro­gram­mers com­pris­ing three Caribbean and two in­ter­na­tion­al in­dus­try spe­cial­ists, more than 250 films were con­sid­ered for the fes­ti­val pro­gramme.

This year’s film pro­gram­mers are Bruce Padding­ton (ttff founder), Danielle Di­ef­fen­thaller, BC Pires, Ivonne Co­tor­ru­elo and Jim Kol­mar.

To­geth­er, they have short­list­ed just over 25 films to com­pete for prizes and awards recog­ni­tion.

Kol­mar, al­so a writer who has been cu­rat­ing fea­tures for the renowned South by South­west Film Fes­ti­val (SXSW), shares: “It’s been a re­al thrill to work with the pro­gram­ming team on this year’s line­up. It rep­re­sents the di­ver­si­ty, cre­ativ­i­ty and the sheer breadth of tal­ent emerg­ing from the Caribbean and be­yond.

“Heart­felt and rest­less­ly in­ven­tive, these films ex­em­pli­fy the bold vi­sions and unique voic­es long cel­e­brat­ed by the fes­ti­val.”

He con­tin­ues: “The most ex­cit­ing part of all this is the op­por­tu­ni­ty to watch these films with en­thu­si­as­tic au­di­ences. It’s the kind of com­mu­ni­ty ex­pe­ri­ence that we need more than ever, and it’s a great plea­sure to play a part in that. I can’t wait for peo­ple to watch these re­mark­able films.”

Films in com­pe­ti­tion will be judged in var­i­ous cat­e­gories in two ar­eas for ju­ry prizes and spe­cial awards.

• Best Nar­ra­tive Fea­ture Film

• Best Doc­u­men­tary Fea­ture Film

• Best Nar­ra­tive Short Film

• Best Doc­u­men­tary Short Film

• Best Stu­dent Film

• ↓Best t+t film– the lo­cal win­ner se­lect­ed from the ag­gre­gate scores of oth­er cat­e­gories

• ↓Spe­cial award – Smart­phone Film­mak­ing Com­pe­ti­tion (Love in the 21st Cen­tu­ry)

• ↓Spe­cial award – best film as de­cid­ed by the Youth Ju­ry

An­tic­i­pat­ed crowd pleasers King David, a doc­u­men­tary by Walt Lovelace about ca­lyp­son­ian David Rud­der, and Stu­dio 17: the lost reg­gae tapes, which ex­plores one of Ja­maica’s leg­endary mu­sic record­ing stu­dios (a hub for su­per­stars Bob Mar­ley, Pe­ter Tosh and oth­ers), are among the films com­pet­ing for prizes at ttff/22.

All win­ners will be an­nounced at the fes­ti­val’s award cer­e­mo­ny on 27 Sep­tem­ber.

Apart from the open­ing night, screen­ings will be held at Movi­eTowne, Port-of-Spain

and NALIS (AV Room and Am­phithe­atre). Screen­ings at NALIS are free to the pub­lic

and tick­ets will be avail­able at the

Movi­eTowne box of­fice from Sep­tem­ber 15.

BEST TRINIDAD AND

TO­BA­GO FILM

‘King David’ di­rect­ed

by Walt Lovelace

‘My maxi’ di­rect­ed

by An­drei J Pierre

‘Oya’ di­rect­ed

by Ais Ruther­ford and Hi­ra Ho­sein

‘The in­ner view’

di­rect­ed by Er­ic Bar­ry

BEST NAR­RA­TIVE FEA­TURE

‘Cette mai­son’ (This house),

di­rect­ed by Miryam Charles

‘Lu­di’ di­rect­ed by Ed­son Jean

‘Pere­jil’ (Pars­ley), di­rect­ed by José María Cabral

‘Re­c­eta no in­clu­i­da’ (With­out pre­scrip­tion), di­rect­ed by Ju­liana Maité Irizarry

‘Una pelícu­la so­bre pare­jas’ (A film about cou­ples), di­rect­ed by Na­talia Cabral + Ori­ol Estra­da

BEST DOC­U­MEN­TARY FILM

‘Lo que se here­da’ (It runs in the fam­i­ly), di­rect­ed by Vic­to­ria Linares Vil­le­gas

‘Mafi­fa’ di­rect­ed by Daniela Muñoz Bar­roso

‘Mr. Eman­ci­pa­tion: The Wal­ter Per­ry sto­ry’ di­rect­ed by Pre­ston Chase

‘Paroles de nè­gres’ (The words of ne­groes), di­rect­ed by Syl­vaine Dampierre

‘Stu­dio 17: The lost reg­gae tapes’ di­rect­ed by Mark James