Mandeville, Manchester — The Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Lignum Vitae Film Festival 2016, which was hosted on the university campus recently, was a big success, organisers say.

A news release from NCU said acclaimed cinematographer and film director, Franklyn St Juste, chief judge of the competition, described the festival as a delightful feast of audio-visual production.

Of the 39 films, which were submitted for the competition, 24 made it to screening in the categories of silent film, short film, animation, mobile film, trailer, TV commercial and music video.

The music video, Snapshot Kingston, produced by David Johnson, took five of the 11 prizes awarded at the event. The prizes were: Best Music Video, Best Cinematography, Best Actress, Best Producer and Best Director (shared).

Snapshot Kingston – which for the most part is a flash-forward – tells a love story with Kingston on display through the eyes and camera lens of a man enthralled by his lover whom he plans to marry. The video highlights the places they will visit together, all leading up to a surprise proposal.

“It was a story well told, the acting was really very good and the cinematography was very good; very nice camera angles,” St Juste said.

Other productions, which stood out for the judges were Ninja Boy, First Fish Fry and Heart Shaped Box.

Ninja Boy, which was shot using an iPhone 4s, copped the prize of Best Mobile Film and was described by the chief judge as very interesting and exciting. The star of the film, five-year-old Solyn Hill, also walked away with the prize for best actor.

The animated film First Fish Fry caught the attention of the judges with the unusual way it took the biblical story of the feeding of the 5000 and put it in a present-day context. This film was awarded the prize for Best Animated Film.

The Heart Shaped Box, which impressed the judges with its storytelling approach, told the story of a man scorned who resorts to killing the various objects of his affection by sending them bombs placed in heart-shaped boxes. This film was selected for Best Short Film and shared the prize for Best Director with Snapshot Kingston.

Chair for the Department of Communication Studies, Rhoma Tomlinson-Whyte, said this year’s competition had the greatest number of entries to date and saw an equal balance of student productions and those from independent participants. She added that she was proud of the work that was submitted from students, as it showed that they were on par with independent producers.

The film festival, which was in its seventh staging, was hosted this year under the theme ‘Change Makers: Those who made a difference’.