The Trinidad and Tobago Film Company Limited (FilmTT) and acclaimed Nigerian producer, filmmaker, and fixer James Amuta are thrilled to announce that their short film, “When the Monsters Come Out,” has been awarded Best International Short at the prestigious Vyre Film Festival (VFF).
The festival is an annual event dedicated to displaying quality content and discovering talent from all over the globe.
VFF highlights dramatic, documentary features and short films, series, and episodic content in the form of multimedia, performances, and films, with many projects that have historically been either overlooked or don’t have access to distribution. VYRE Network’s plan is to fill this void and the disconnect between quality content and global viewership.
“When the Monsters Come Out” is the product of a dynamic two-week capacity-building Script to Screen Program employing a guerrilla-style filmmaking approach, spearheaded by James Amuta in 2023. Through this program, emerging filmmakers were provided with invaluable hands-on experience and mentorship, resulting in a compelling production that was filmed entirely in Trinidad. The programme also provided training in the areas of Visual Storytelling, Producing, the Art of Fixing, Production Design, Locations, Product Placement, as well as practical training in the areas of Guerrilla Cinematography and Directing with Purpose.
“We are immensely proud of ‘When the Monsters Come Out’ and grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with James Amuta and the talented filmmakers involved,” said Leslie Ann Wills-Caton, General Manager at FilmTT. “This award is a testament to the power of collaboration and the importance of supporting emerging voices in the film industry.”
James Amuta is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and cinematographer. His critically acclaimed documentary film, Nightfall in Lagos won the “Best Documentary by an African” award at TINFF, Toronto and was also nominated for “Best Documentary” at the 2018 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards. His screenplay for the AFRIFF 2021 Closing Film, Collision Course (currently streaming on NETFLIX), earned him an Africa Movie Academy Award for Prize for Achievement in Screenplay. The poet-turned-filmmaker is the author of Enigma: Beyond the Poet, a collection of 84 poems published in 2007, which included critically acclaimed poems which have featured in international poetry anthologies and publications in the USA and the United Kingdom.
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