Five years in, Skylark Film Festival founder Gareth Cobran is confidently in expansion mode. With the curtains drawn last month on the Negril-based event’s successful 2024 iteration, the movie showcase ideator already has plans fermenting for next year’s festival. “The most memorable takeaway this year was the concert [that featured the One Love movie cast members Sevana, Naomi Cowan, Alexx A-Game, Quan Dajai, and Sheldon Shepherd],” Cobran told The Sunday Gleaner during a mid-week sitdown in his St Andrew studio offices.
“It was a good ending to an epic weekend of films. For the next festival, we will be retaining the musical element for sure and also looking to incorporate a culture market where we can invite different artisans to display their work. This will complete the Jamaican arts trinity and further build on the festival,” he explained of the collective span of film, music, and visual arts to come.
Post-festival in September, he disclosed that there is palpable buy-in from his creative peers further afield for next year’s staging. “We’ve had an influx of interest in participation and submissions from film-makers in other Caribbean islands and from the United States,” Cobran said. THE BEGINNING This is big for the festival, which was conceptualised in 2018 when Cobran, who had an abiding love for the titular Skylark Negril Beach resort, figured that a festival was tangible, having enjoyed multiple family vacations at the boutique property located a.