GATFFEST names 2022 Best of Festival award winners

The curtains came down in fine style at GATFFEST 2022 which saw 14 filmmakers walking away winners at the recent awards ceremony which was staged at the Palace Cineplex Sovereign. The re-branded Greater August Town Film Festival, hosted by the newly merged Mona Social Services/UWI Community Film Project ran from June 9 - July 2 with overwhelming response from both filmmakers and patrons who turned out for eight film nights culminating in the awards ceremony.

Filmmakers copped awards for Most Original Screenplay, Patty versus Patty; Franklyn St Juste Award for Best Directing, Timoun Aw (Your Kid); Best Cinematography, No Entry; Lennie Little-White Award for Best Local Film, Traytown; Best International/Regional Film, Timoun Aw (Your Kid); Best Animated Film, Mother Finch; Best MSS/UWICFP Film, A Day in the Life of a Mangrove Warden; The Lamar Dookie Award for Best Edited MSS/UWICFP Film, A Day in the Life of a Mangrove Warden; The Spirit of GATFFEST Award, Timoun Aw (Your Kid); Archibald McDonald Award for the Best of GATTFEST, Timoun Aw (Your Kid); International Viewers’ Choice Award, Timoun Aw (Your Kid); and The Bathtub, Jamaican Viewers’ Choice Award, Traytown and Nice Lady.

The Mona Social Services/UWI Community Film Project Award for Change in the Community was presented to a graduate of the UWI Community Film Project who uses what has been taught in the programme to make a significant impact on the community. This year’s winner is Phillip Watson.

In 2021, Watson was accepted into the project under the Kingston Harbour Ecosystem Adaptation Measures Project. He is a part of three cohorts trained in film and video production with an emphasis on environmental issues facing the Kingston Harbour and the communities that immediately surround it. He graduated in August 2021 and now runs a community-based social enterprise, Supm Fi Talk Bout, that empowers and provides a safe haven for the youths of 16 different communities of downtown Kingston. This is done through academics, sports, permaculture, music, arts, farming, dancing, and community tours.

As GATFFEST celebrated a decade in filmmaking, Festival Director Savannah Peridot proudly chronicled their journey with 1950 total film submissions, 323 films screened, 31 UWICFP student films screened, 130 Jamaican films submitted, 33.5 hours of film master-classes and workshops and 115 Jamaican films screened.

The festival had its genesis in 2013, when it was introduced as an avenue to showcase the films produced by the graduates of the UWI Community Film Project, a community-based initiative supporting the UWI Township Project. GATFFEST serves as a platform for the exposure of film making talents of directors, producers, casts and crews and provides an opportunity to showcase new and emerging filmmakers who are telling stories through a mix of short films and documentaries.