JAMAICA can host multiple film festivals

KINGSTON, January 4 – Jamaica can and will continue to host a number of film and music festivals. The country’s content and production are of the diversity, quality and brand strength to be able to maintain and sustain festivals for its relevant markets.

The state’s investment and export promotion agency, JAMPRO has secured the services of a number of organisations and professional individuals as part of a continuing effort to market the country’s resources in a number of key sectors, of which film and the creative industry are important. Akin to that is hosting of events, meetings, conferences, workshops, seminars, roadshows, and in this case festivals as mechanisms to showcase the island’s services.

The Jamaica Film Festival 2015, scheduled for July 7 – 11 this year in Kingston is one such event and as the FILM COMMISSIONER, based at JAMPRO, a team is working on delivering this event. So far a major partner, Tuff Gong International has been acquired http://sflcn.com/bob-marley-foundation-partners-with-jampro-for-jamaica-film-festival-2015/

A number of other partners have been pursued (public and private) and those will be announced shortly, to include strategic media partners, local and international. A call for film/documentary projects was announced and 54 projects were observed through pitch sessions. The pitches were seen by a myriad of local experts and a short list has been recommended. The next step is for script experts to match scores from the pitch sessions upon which those selected will be announced for production.

A number of professional development workshops will be held for the teams of the projects chosen to ensure quality and provide the support warranted for the successful delivery of the projects in July.

MULTIPLE FILM FESTIVALS

Though a small country relative to those with longer history with film festivals, e.g. Canada, there is room for more than one. Canada for example, profiles the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as its premier event, while there are at least ten other MAJOR ones with a few themed festivals. There are ten major ones and that does not include the sub festivals while the major ones are going on. So Montreal, Quebec, Vancouver etc have their own.

More and more cities are becoming the venues for film festivals and here is a link for the ones which were the most recommended festivals for 2014 http://www.moviemaker.com/archives/festivals/50-film-festivals-worth-the-entry-fee-2014/

JAMAICA

Jamaica’s layout by parish/county is distinguished by its culture, and with effective planning the indigenous of each area is at liberty, as has been done, the opportunity to plan its own series of cultural events including film festivals. No government or private sector entity can restrict a community; neither will JAMPRO. The nature of the business is one which is open for a variety of projects, but JAMPRO has a mandate and role to determine programmes in the best interest of Jamaica’s export and investment projects.

The Film Festival in July is scheduled for Kingston and it is on – stay tuned to http://www.filmjamaica.com and information will be revealed in a timely manner.

An earlier post here, identifies the role of film festivals in economic activity, read for background https://carolebeckford.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/film-festivals-benefits-to-cities-worldwide/

We invite all those with ideas to plan to keep Jamaica’s brand in check as we seek to promote our services and products to the world. There is room for all of us to exist.

Film, Music and Entertainment – Jamaica is where it all is!

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