The 9th Annual Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) will celebrate nearly a decade of success by taking the festival outside of New Providence, showcasing films from December 10-14 in both Harbour Island and Governer’s Harbour.
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.
Dustin Hoffman’s directoral debut, “Quartet”, starring Maggie Smith, will open the festival with a red carpet screening at the Atlantis Resort on Thursday, December 6. “The Sapphires”, an Australian comedy staring Chris O’Dowd will close the festival with an evening screening on Sunday, December 9, also at the Atlantis Theatre.
“It’s exciting… We’ll be celebrating so many films from around the world,” Festival Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool said. “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.
“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 cost $3 per film and the movies will be shown from 11:00am – 11:00pm at Galleria Cinemas 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 some of Hollywood’s elite, 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.
