Competitions
Curaçao International Film Festival is more than just screenings, it’s a platform for cultural exchange, creative expression, and community impact. We showcase powerful stories from across the Caribbean and around the world, connecting filmmakers and audiences in a celebration of identity, diversity, and storytelling. With our competitions we give regional and local film makers a platform and opportunity to showcase their productions internationally and receive funds to do the important work they do.
Yellow Robin Award Competition
This competition screens first or second feature films by emerging filmmakers from the Caribbean, and Latin America. The winning film will be selected by an international jury and awarded a cash prize of $8,000USD.
Watapana Award Competition
The newly launched Watapana Award, part of the Caribbean Focus segment, is intended for filmmakers from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Suriname. The name of the award honors the work of Curaçaoan filmmaker Wilbert Tecla, who addressed urgent environmental themes in the 1970s in his short film Lanta Para Watapana, inspired by the poem of the same name by Henri Habibe. The watapana tree, a symbol of strength and resilience, is the source of inspiration for the name of the award.
With the introduction of the new Watapana competition, the festival aims to create more space for local talent and innovative storytelling.
Impact 1 program
The Curaçao International Film Festival (CIFF) in collaboration with the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), announces the first edition of Impact, a project that offers a unique and privileged space for Caribbean filmmakers with works-in-progress to receive creative and constructive feedback on their projects from a group of specially-selected film professionals from the international industry.
Impact is looking for feature films (fiction or documentary) in any stage of post-production. Projects will be presented in private screenings to participating film professionals with the filmmaker present, thereby offering a unique opportunity for positive feedback and reflection on the projects, their completion, promotion and circulation.
