Thu | Oct 2, 2025

Skylark Film Festival adds additional day

Celebrates acting legend Paul Campbell with tribute

Published:Wednesday | October 1, 2025 | 12:06 AMDamian Levy/Gleaner Writer
Skylark Film Festival founder Gareth Cobran.
Skylark Film Festival founder Gareth Cobran.
Veteran Jamaican actor Paul Campbell will be honoured at this year’s Skylark Film Festival.
Veteran Jamaican actor Paul Campbell will be honoured at this year’s Skylark Film Festival.
Gareth Cobran (left) and Max Glazer at the 2023 Skylark Film Festival.
Gareth Cobran (left) and Max Glazer at the 2023 Skylark Film Festival.
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The Skylark Film Festival will host its sixth staging on Negril’s Seven Mile Beach at Skylark Negril Beach Resort, beginning Thursday. With the aim of spotlighting local film-makers and their work, the festival has expanded with an additional day added to the schedule.

“From day one, I wanted this festival to be a five-day festival at the very least, so we’re slowly creeping up to that. We start out with the welcome party on the beach. We’re not just curating films, we’re curating a vibe,” Gareth Cobran, the festival’s curator and founder, told The Gleaner.

Guests will be able to meet and greet on day one, followed by a packed schedule of masterclasses and seminars, as well as short and feature-length film showings and guest performances. Feature films to be shown include Romeo & Juliet 4Eva and Threads of Us starring Sevana.

HONOURING PAUL CAMPBELL

There will also be a tribute to veteran Jamaican actor Paul Campbell. “For our second day, we’ve gone into short docs as well because those are very important stories. Those [are] real, genuine [and] important stories that need to be told. In the night, we’ll have our short film block, and then, after that, we’ll have the Paul Campbell tribute. Everybody is looking forward to this tribute. It’s the highlight of the weekend,” said Cobran.

In describing what brought on the decision to include the tribute to the Jamaican acting legend, Cobran cites collaborator and festival host Max Glazer as the inspiration.

“At the end of the last screening last year, Max Glazer said, ‘You know what would be cool for next year, if we got Paul Campbell’. And I said, ‘Max, I am on it’. It just makes perfect sense. Paul Campbell is a legend. I’ve grown up on Paul Campbell’s films, and it was just the most ideal thing to do to have him here, to be able to speak to him, to pay him tribute for his legacy. And also the great thing about it is it’s a tool of influence as well, because I want youngsters to come out and see that this man, his work spoke for itself, so much so that it’s brought him to this point where he’s on stage now being honoured for the work that he’s done,” said Cobran. The tribute to Campbell will also see a special screening of The Lunatic.

The Skylark Film Festival continues to expand each year and is well attended. However, despite its success, Cobran shared that he would like to see more sponsors come on board.

“I don’t feel like sponsors are invested enough in this massive cultural event that we’re having. I think it shows the lack of sensitivity to the arts in Jamaica. We are such a cultural, art-filled place. We have such creativity that seeps out of us that it infects the rest of the world, but yet still we don’t support it within ourselves. It doesn’t make sense. Film is so big now in the world; it’s so important for you to have film and video, and we’re having a festival that celebrates that on a Jamaican platform, and it’s hard for me to get people to support it. It’s very disheartening,” he said.

For Cobran, the funding deficit makes it particularly difficult, as he sees the festival as an opportunity to highlight the work accomplished by Jamaica’s film community, namely the Jamaica Film and Television Association (JAFTA), which celebrates 10 years of work in 2025.

“JAFTA has done so much to build and support what we do as filmmakers on the ground. I am now trying to showcase that,” said Cobran.

The Skylark Film Festival opens on October 2 and runs until October 5. Admission is free.

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