Caribbean film competition to celebrate national pride

PlayGo IS CALLING filmmakers across the Caribbean for the PlayGo Emerge Film Competition. In celebration of the diverse cultures and similarities that bind us together as a region, the competition encourages creators to submit short form videos under the theme: Celebrate the National Pride of your Country, a release from Digicel states.

The competition will run from July 1 to September 30, 2021, and invites submissions in three categories: Youth (ages 12-18); Emerging (up to 5 years’ experience); and Pro (more than 5 years’ experience). Submissions should range from 5 to 15 minutes in any of the following six content genres: documentary, drama/fiction, comedy, science fiction, animation and photo essay.

The PlayGo app is available to download in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and offers users TV anytime, anywhere, so they can watch live sports, regional events, local new, shows, movies and kids programming from their device, right in the palm of their hand.

Tari Lovell, Head of Marketing Digital Services at Digicel, said: “It’s been more than a year since we all faced into the pandemic, and while it hindered development and growth in many ways, we also saw it becoming a creative catalyst for many around the world. Globally, people united and came together in unprecedented ways and we’re sure that in our region there are countless untold stories and moments of pride to come out of that. We want to hear those stories, and give them an audience they deserve. It doesn’t matter if you have experience or not, we’re accepting entries from the young beginner, to the not so young professional.”

Entry is limited to original videos or photos essays, which will be screened by judges and then released for the public to vote on. In order to submit entries, participants have to download the PlayGo app with an active subscription, and register and upload their submission to the contest platform on playgoemerge.com.

In support of the entrants, and anyone else in the industry, there is also a masterclass series with Caribbean film professionals like Gabrielle Blackwood and Joel Burke from Jamaica; Selwyn de Wind from Curacao; Camille Selvon Abrahams from Trinidad and Tobago; and Davina Lee from Saint Lucia. For the series, PlayGo partnered with Third Horizon, a creative collective dedicated to developing, producing, exhibiting and distributing film and other art forms that give voice to stories of the Caribbean, its diaspora and other marginalised and under-represented spaces in the Global South. These will all be available for free on PlayGo’s Facebook page.

Overall, there are 20 prizes to be won, 18 in the genre categories (one winner per entrant category in each of the six genres), one people’s choice award (to be voted on by the public) and one grand prize (to be determined by the judging panel). Winners will receive anywhere from US$500 to US$2,500 cash, Adobe Premiere PRO-1, an all-expense paid trip and other exciting prizes.