Haitian filmmakers receive honors at international and local film festivals

Haitian cinema is receiving international and domestic recognition through recent film festival successes. At the 11th Haiti International Film Festival (HIFF) held in Hollywood on August 15, 2026, director and journalist Samuel Dameus won the ‘Best Innovative Film’ award for his documentary, ‘The Heroes of the Massacre River.’ The film explores the community mobilization surrounding the construction of a canal on the Massacre River and connects contemporary local efforts to the historical memory of the 1937 massacre during the Rafael Trujillo regime.

Domestically, the third edition of the Lakaywood Film Festival took place in Cap-Haïtien on August 15, 2026. Under the theme ‘Haiti in the World Cup,’ the event aimed to foster a structured national film industry. The festival featured various regional filmmakers and honored several winners, including Ronald ‘Rondy_P’ Petit-Homme, who took first prize for ‘Ayiti Yon Lot Fwa Anko.’ The Lakaywood Foundation expressed its long-term goal of enabling Haitian directors to produce large-scale historical works that showcase the nation’s founding exploits to a global audience.