Marketing director for Flow, Cindy Ann Gatt, said the company, which has sponsored the T&T Film Festival for the past eight years, will be sponsoring the festival into 2019.
Gatt made the announcement to the gala audience at the opening of the festival on September 20, at the Central Bank Auditorium, Port-of-Spain.She said the company is gratified to be able to contribute to the support of the local film industry and urged corporate T&T and theatre-owners to sponsor and show more local films.
Festival founder and director Bruce Paddington said he was pleased to note that the festival has become part of T&T's cultural calendar and promised not to disappoint those who have eagerly awaited the event.
Paddington said the festival offers some of the best films from the Caribbean, Caribbean diaspora and world cinema. The festival runs for one week this year, with screenings at MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain and Tobago; UWI, St Augustine; Costaatt campuses; and venues in Arima and Tobago. Paddington was particularly excited about the festival's partnership with Costaatt, which is sponsoring the Youth Jury Prize and will be developing a Future Critics programme at the School of Journalism.
He said the festival has set up industry events for local and international filmmakers to meet and learn from each other. The festival this year features the second annual Caribbean Film Mart, an industry event that, among other things, links content buyers with selected filmmakers. Among those presenting at the event are Ethiopian filmmaker Yared Zeleke, European film marketer Catherine Buresi and South African producer Steven Markovitz.
Flow will also be hosting a session for local filmmakers to explain how films can be viewed on Flow's on-demand service. All proceeds from those films will go directly to the filmmakers.That two-day event ends today at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain.
Paddington was pleased to be part of an effort "where we can see ourselves on screen," to show people that there are more options than Hollywood and Bollywood cinema.
The gala audience comprised investors, sponsors, film directors and cast and crew of the various local and international films in the festival.