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Press Release
March 9, 2005
BELIZE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2005 AWARD WINNERS
"GUIANA 1838" the first feature film by Guyanese director, Rohit Jagessar
- a historic docu-drama depicting the slavery of indentured Indian
servants on their arrival to the Caribbean - was the overwhelming choice
by Belizean Audiences to receive the Conchshell Award for the Best
Feature Film in the OFFICIAL SELECTION category for the 2005 Belize
International Film Festival during the Closing Ceremonies for the Belize
International Film Festival on Monday evening, February 28, 2005 at the
Bliss Center for the Performing Arts in Belize City.
During the brief presentation ceremony, seven films out of 36 competing
films received awards chosen by the Audience using ballots during the
festival. Apart from the Award for Best Feature Film in the Official
Selection Category, six other Awards were given to the Best Short Film
and Best Documentary Film in each of the festival’s three other competing
categories: Made In Belize, Caribbean Filmmakers and Central America +
Southern Mexico.
MADE IN BELIZE:
The award for Best Short Film went to Director: Winsom Winsom for “Oya”,
her film homage to the Yoruba Orisha of Movement and Change while the
Best Documentary Film award went to Director Brent Toombs for “The
Hammock” which documented the ancient Maya Art Form of making a hammock
from cacti in the Q’eqchi’ language.
CARIBBEAN FILMMAKERS:
The Dominican Republican-American Director Albert Xavier won Best Short
Film award with his film “A Different Man / Un hombre Diferente” about an
artist who changes for his woman only to discover that he is living a
nightmare while Montserattian Director David Lea’s educational video
field trip “Montserrat’s Andesite Volcano: A video Field Investigation
of the eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano” took the award for Best
Documentary Film in this category.
CENTRAL AMERICA + SOUTHERN MEXICO
The Best Short Film Award went to Chicano-American Director Iris Almaraz
for “The Whore / La Puta”, her magical realism narrative about the town
whore with a heart of gold while the Best Documentary Film went to
Nicaraguan director, Florence Jaugey for “From Girls to Mothers / De Niña
a Madre” which highlighted the alarming rise in the numbers of adolescent mothers in Nicaragua through video case studies of three such young
mothers.
Forty-eight films in total were screened during the Third Edition of the
Belize International Film Festival. They came from Belize, Guyana,
Trinidad + Tobago, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba,
Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela,
Bolivia, USA, Canada, Austria, Spain, UK, France, Germany, India,
Palestine, Israel and South Africa.
The Belize International Film Festival is the initiative of a committed
group of volunteers dedicated to exposing the Belizean public to high
quality films from all over the world as well as raising the profile of
audiovisual productions in Belize, the Caribbean and Central American
Regions to international audiences. Preference is given to films that
incorporate the clash or fusion of two or more cultures in their
storylines as this reflects the unique multi-cultural, multi-ethnic
reality of contemporary Belizean life.
For more information on the winning films and other participating films
in this year’s festival, please email belizefilmfestival@yahoo.com.
Press Release February 3, 2005
Press Release October 27, 2004
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