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This morning, the Festival's founder, Suzette Zayden, told the press why the public should take an interest and attend:

Suzette Zaiden - Founder, BIFF
"We're about to start the 14th Edition of the Belize International Film Festival tomorrow. With us today is our guest speaker, who will be giving the keynote address at the opening ceremony tomorrow at 7, Mr. Mark Ang."

"We start tomorrow with 2 films, with an opening short called My Father Belize, which will start promptly at 6, and after that, there will be a half-hour, during which there's an intermission, a red-carpet cocktail, and at 7, we start the ceremonies inside the Bliss, after which, it will be followed by the opening feature from Taiwan, called Unhappiness Road."

"On Thursday, we feature the Green Globe category, which is an environmental section, which we have been working on with Belize's environmental community. That is 2 screenings at the Bliss, for schools and anyone who's interested at 9:30 a.m., and at 1:30. And there are a few films about environmental issues that will be screened at that time. At night, a 6 o'clock, there will be a panel discussion on issues of importance to Belize's environmental community, and what should be important to us as Belizeans as well, which is 3 panel discussions on topics such as sargassum, what's happening with sargassum, the issue of the ban on styrofoam and single-use plastics. It hasn't been enacted yet. So, what's going on, and what's the next move, as well, the last topic will be on the new coral disease that's happening right now and affecting our reefs."

"The movies start on Thursday as well at the Princess, 7 and 9. On Thursday, also, is our film market."

"On Friday, we have films again at the Princess at 7 and 9 as well, and we have a film industry mixer. We're speaking with Commonwealth Foundation. There's a representative from the Commonwealth Foundation writer's conference that will be here. They want to talk to you guys, who are making films, all of you here, and anyone from the Caribbean about providing funding for your next initiative."

"On Saturday, we're at the Princess again starting from about midday, with the films. You can make a whole day of film watching. In the morning, there's going to be a screenwriting workshop that will be led by the Commonwealth Foundation."

"We're also having on Saturday the public screening of shorts in the Park at the Digi Park at 7 p.m."

"And in the night, we're going to do a Music video night at Thursday Thursdays, where the 15 selected music videos for this year will be promoted in a party atmosphere. And then, we close on Sunday with a concert here at the Bliss."

This year, the Festival's keynote speaker is a celebrated filmmaker from out of Taiwan. He's Mark Ang, and since his career started, he has won over 50 awards in Festivals around the world. Like most filmmakers in Belize, he didn't study filmmaking at some fancy university in Taiwan. But, his passion and drive to pursue this career path have gained him international success.

So, we asked him about what advice he could give to Belizeans who aspire to be filmmakers themselves. Here's what he had to say:

Mark Ang - Taiwanese Filmmaker
"Actually, I saw some of Belize's locally produced films or music videos. I found that they're all maturely produced, I mean no matter the quality of the editing. So, I think there are a lot of talented filmmakers here. I think the lack is financial support because it actually happens in Taiwan. The difference is that the base in Taiwan is so big. The history of the movie industry has been a hundred years in Taiwan. And we have at least 200 to 400 pieces of short films produced every year from all the filmmaking schools in Taiwan. And of course, we have a lot of companies willing to support, and a lot of subsidies from the Government. Also, there has been a period of time where we are lacking in resources. Even now, we have make films by ourselves."

"The internet is a very useful tool for nowadays."

"I found that after like 10 years, I found that there are so many students in the so-called internet generation, they can learn how to make a film from the internet in only a year. And they then become internet celebrities with a lot of very high-quality videos. Talking about learning and training, the internet is a good tool."

"As for the fundraising, the financial part. I think it's a really difficult part. So, my suggestion is to make films the fewer the costs, the better."

"I think that Belize is very close to Mexico, and a little bit far, but still close to the United States. And I suggest that you can find financial support from both big countries."

The Festival runs from tomorrow night until Sunday. Winners will receive their honors at the closing ceremony.