The cur­tain came down on this year’s T&T Film Fes­ti­val (TTFF) with the an­nounce­ment of win­ners, high­light­ing a pow­er­ful slate of Caribbean films that brought rich sto­ry­telling to the big screen.

The Best Fea­ture-Length Fic­tion Film award went to Kanaval, di­rect­ed by Hait­ian-Cana­di­an film­mak­er Hen­ri Par­do, a grip­ping ex­plo­ration of iden­ti­ty, mi­gra­tion, and mem­o­ry through the lens of Car­ni­val. Par­do said he was both sur­prised and de­light­ed by the win.

“You nev­er know what can please a ju­ry be­cause the films are so dif­fer­ent and so beau­ti­ful,” he said. “I’m sur­prised, very hap­py, and very con­tent. I can’t wait to share this with peo­ple back home.”

Co-pro­duc­er Neigeme Glas­gow, a Trinida­di­an based in Lux­em­bourg, de­scribed the mo­ment as be­ing “over the moon.”

He added, “This was the first time one of my films has been shown in Trinidad and To­ba­go, and for it to win makes it even more spe­cial. Some­times you feel like peo­ple back home don’t see the work you’re do­ing out there, but this shows that they do. It gives me the strength to go back out and keep cre­at­ing, to keep ‘colonis­ing in re­verse’ – shar­ing our sto­ries with the world through love and pride in who we are.”

An ho­n­ourable men­tion in the cat­e­go­ry went to Olivia + the Clouds by Tomas Pichar­do Es­pailat, which cap­ti­vat­ed au­di­ences with its del­i­cate, dream­like nar­ra­tive.

In the fea­ture-length doc­u­men­tary cat­e­go­ry, the top prize was award­ed to L’Homme Veri­gage – Tales of a City, di­rect­ed by Malau­ry Eloi Pais­ley, praised for its lay­ered por­trait of ur­ban life and hu­man re­silience. Zone, by Si­mon Shim-Sut­cliffe, won Best Mid-Length Doc­u­men­tary for its sharp sto­ry­telling and im­pact­ful vi­su­als, while Bub­bling Ba­by by Sharine Ri­jsen­burg took Best Short Doc­u­men­tary with a touch­ing por­trait that res­onat­ed deeply with both ju­ry and au­di­ence.

For short fic­tion, Hait­ian film­mak­er Samuel Suf­fren’s Blue Heart won Best Short Fic­tion Film, im­press­ing the pan­el with its poignant sto­ry­telling and cin­e­mat­ic craft.

T&T tal­ent al­so shone this year. Char­lot­teville Tails, di­rect­ed by El­speth Dun­can, earned Best Film Made in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Dun­can said she felt “very ho­n­oured” to re­ceive the award, es­pe­cial­ly since the film pro­motes kind­ness to­ward an­i­mals.

“I’m par­tic­u­lar­ly pleased that the award gives the film more lever­age, mark­ing it as some­thing im­por­tant enough to have been cho­sen by a ju­ry,” Dun­can said. “It’s a good way of get­ting the mes­sage out fur­ther about an­i­mal wel­fare in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

She not­ed that the ju­ry com­mend­ed the film for not shy­ing away from “some of the hor­rors that are a re­al­i­ty for the an­i­mals.” This was the first award for Char­lot­teville Tails and Dun­can’s sec­ond over­all at TTFF. Look­ing ahead, she hopes to sub­mit the film to in­ter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals while en­sur­ing it reach­es wider lo­cal au­di­ences. “It is a lo­cal film, about lo­cal an­i­mal res­cue and wel­fare, and I think we def­i­nite­ly need a lot more ed­u­ca­tion in that area,” she added, clos­ing with the re­minder: “Be kind to an­i­mals.”

An ho­n­ourable men­tion in the cat­e­go­ry went to Peko: To­day for To­mor­row, di­rect­ed by Jo­van Lal­la, praised for its cre­ativ­i­ty and cul­tur­al ground­ing.

The Padding­ton Prize for Best Stu­dent Film was award­ed to De­pey­ize by Pamela Ben­cosme, recog­nised as an ex­cep­tion­al work show­cas­ing the promise of the next gen­er­a­tion of film­mak­ers.

Fes­ti­val Di­rec­tor Mariel Brown said this year’s win­ners un­der­scored TTFF’s mis­sion to spot­light both es­tab­lished and emerg­ing voic­es from across the re­gion.

“One of the cru­cial things about TTFF is that we are a fes­ti­val of dis­cov­ery and new tal­ent,” Brown said. “We are al­so one of the few com­pet­i­tive film fes­ti­vals in the Caribbean. Win­ning awards brings film­mak­ers and films much-need­ed vis­i­bil­i­ty as they build their ca­reers. To the ex­tent that we can be a spring­board for ca­reers, I feel very proud.”

Re­flect­ing on this year’s fes­ti­val, Brown said the re­sponse from au­di­ences was over­whelm­ing­ly pos­i­tive, with many prais­ing the va­ri­ety and depth of films.

“Hav­ing a fes­ti­val like this in the Caribbean that cen­tres Caribbean sto­ries is vi­tal. We see our­selves re­flect­ed, in­clud­ed, and recog­nised in these sto­ries of who we are. That, for me, is some­thing re­mark­able that TTFF does, and I am very proud of it,” she said.

Look­ing ahead to 2026, when TTFF will cel­e­brate its 20th an­niver­sary, Brown said the mile­stone will ho­n­our film­mak­ers whose ca­reers have been shaped by the fes­ti­val while con­tin­u­ing to show­case the next gen­er­a­tion of sto­ry­tellers.

“As we cel­e­brate 20 years, we will high­light the film­mak­ers who have blos­somed as a re­sult of TTFF while al­so cham­pi­oning new and emerg­ing voic­es. That bal­ance is what keeps the fes­ti­val vi­brant and mean­ing­ful,” she added.