International Film Festival is Here

The countdown to the Belize International Film Festival is on. The much-acclaimed festival begins next Wednesday with a preview event at the House of Culture in Belize City. While the official opening ceremony is set for Thursday at the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts and will be carried live on this station, this year, organizers have added new elements and a wider repertoire of films. A panel of four judges, one of whom is a familiar face on OWN TV, will assess twenty-eight films and fifteen music videos.  According to ICA’s Suzette Zayden, the films cover messages about topical issues.

Suzette Zayden

Suzette Zayden, Director, Film & Media Arts Unit, ICA

“We are screening a film from Costa Rica called the ‘Sound of Things’ followed by panel discussion on suicide ‘ The Ones Who are Left Behind’  that is being hosted by the mental health association and the embassy of Costa Rica. It is part of our social impact films that we have at the festival. In fact, this year we have a lot of important films. We are taking our title as a festival that is topical and tropical very seriously and so we were looking for films that had something to say. Special guest judge/jury this year is Miss Lynn Whitfield. She plays Lady Mae Greenleaf on the series Green Leaf; Oprah Winfrey’s TV series. She is very excited to come and we were able to get her because one of our Belizean costume designers work on that set with Ms Whitfield. And she came earlier this year and said I am ready to contribute so she went out and decided she will help make this festival just as great. So, name is Ms Deborah Fairweather and she will be here with Ms Lynn and one of the producers from Greenleaf – in fact all three of them all worked on a NETFLIX film that just wrapped called Nappily Ever After which just wrapped.”