The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter will close the Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) in Nassau on December 5.

This year the festival will showcase 56 films from 17 different countries including 27 features. As previously announced Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe will open the event on December 2.

Festival founder and executive director Leslie Vanderpool announced the line-up today [10], which includes Judith Colell’s Elisa K (Spain), Nicolas Steil’s Refractaire (Luxemburg) and documentaries Budrus (Palestine) by Julia Bacha and From Somewhere To No Where (Switzerland) from Villi Hermann.

The Caribbean Sidebar features Clarence Rolle’s Crazy Love (Bahamas), Lou Lambert’s Gangs In Paradise (US) and Michael D Sellers’ Beneath The Blue (Bahamas /US).

The competitive categories are: Spirit Of Freedom: Narrative; Spirit Of Freedom: Documentary; New Visions; and Short Film. The festival also presents a non-competitive world cinema showcase.

Ths year BIFF brings back the Filmmaker’s Residency Program offering film-makers from the Bahamian and Caribbean community the chance to receive mentoring from industry professionals.