The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS Film Festival is celebrating its ninth anniversary in December by taking the show on the road.

For the first time, the films will be showcased outside of New Providence.

The festival begins Thursday, December 6, in the capital and runs through Sunday, December 9, and for the first time expands to Harbour Island and Governor’s Harbour, December 10-14.

This year BIFF will showcase 78 films from 30 different countries, including 45 feature films and 33 short films.

The four categories at BIFF are Spirit of Freedom, Narrative and Documentary, New Visions and Short films.

Weinstein Company’s “Quartet” starring Maggie Smith and directed by Dustin Hoffman will open the festival with a red carpet screening at the Atlantis Resort on Thursday, December 6, while Australian comedy “The Sapphires”, staring Chris O’Dowd will close the festival with an evening screening on Sunday, December 9, also at the Atlantis Theatre.

Festival Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool said this year the festival will be “bringing sexy back.”

“It’s exciting and will be celebrating so many films from around the world. I feel that due to the hard work and efforts the BIFF has put forth over the years we are able to showcase the Bahamas in a very good way. It’s a film festival for the people. It’s a film festival for the country. It’s a film festival that puts our best foot forward as a tourism product,” she said.

“More importantly it raises the social consciousness of the Bahamas. We are not just an even in December. We are an organization that goes into the schools and teaches the children how to make a film. It is really exciting to see the children being film makes. We went to schools and the kids made a film called ‘25 years of Junkanoo’ and it features Prime Minister Perry Christie, who will do being the shuffle. It’s very fun. This is the future of BIFF.”

Tickets are $3 per film and the movies will be shown 11am - 11pm at Galleria on John F Kennedy Drive.

Over the past nine years, BIFF has showcased over 500 films. Among the many international filmmakers attending the Festivals were film industry’s giants such as Heather Graham, Johnny Depp, Alan Arkin, Sir Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Roger Corman, Daryl Hannah, Sophie Okonedo, Anna Faris, Naomie Harris and Zoe Kravitz.