October 7, 2026
Cinema Meets Paradise: The Negril Universal Film Festival Brings ‘NUFF’ Screen Magic To Jamaica’s 7 Mile Beach
The annual gathering addresses a pivotal moment for regional entertainment.
The Negril Universal Film Festival (NUFF) returns to the iconic Seven Mile Beach from Oct. 8–11, 2026. The four-day event, hosted at the Skylark Negril Beach Resort, will transform Westmoreland’s world-famous shore into an open-air cinematic experience, uniting international audiences, local creators, and industry luminaries to celebrate the trajectory of Caribbean and global visual storytelling.
The annual gathering addresses a pivotal moment for regional entertainment: bridging creative vision with commercial viability. Organized by the Jamaica Film and Television Association (JAFTA) alongside international partners, NUFF showcases 34 films from 13 countries and offers targeted master classes on emerging media, capital acquisition, and distribution networks.
Negril Universal Film Festival Will Merge Culture and Industry on Seven Mile Beach
With Jamaica’s recent introduction of a dedicated national film fund, the Negril Universal Film Festival reinforces Seven Mile Beach not merely as a resort destination, but as a catalyst for Jamaican cinema and international film festival screenings. By positioning projection screens against the tide of Seven Mile Beach, NUFF is bringing together artistic consumption with island culture. Attendees will engage with programming under the stars while accessing specialized educational panels during the day.
“Picture this: You’re on the Seven Mile Beach in Negril, and there’s a huge screen on the beach… You’re sipping your cocktails, and you’re watching cinema—regional and Jamaican cinema,” Nadean Rawlins, Negril Universal Film Festival (NUFF) Board Member and President of JAFTA, told Smile Jamaica TV. “You take that cocktail, you go up to the yoga deck, and you hear about vertical filmmaking, or you hear about how a director produces or directs his film. That is the Negril Universal Film Festival. It’s an amalgamation of cinema, industry, music… coming together and celebrating film.”
The 2026 program opens on Oct. 8 with a retrospective presentation of Stephanie Black’s Life and Debt, marking the 25th anniversary of the film that explores economic station. Subsequent nights highlight a tribute to musical icon Jimmy Cliff, Storm Saulter’s Possession, and the Jamaican premiere of Reggae Girlz, a film co-directed by Trish Dalton and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Caribbean Journal reported. The festival concludes Oct. 11 with the maternal health documentary Listen to Me, followed by a public policy discourse featuring Jamaican Health Minister Christopher Tufto.
Industry Master Classes Will Be Available for Independent Filmmakers in the Caribbean
As Caribbean media ecosystems evolve beyond traditional models, independent filmmakers face unique hurdles in capitalizing production and monetizing intellectual property. NUFF’s daytime curriculum directly addresses these structural gaps through master classes led by global experts who will cover fiscal execution.
“My role in the master class is to tell [attendees] how to make money as an independent filmmaker,” said Denee Busby-Howard, cofounder of Hyperlens Studio. “And let them know that there’s available tools and resources that they can put in action right now.
Busby continued: “I’m talking about tax credits from their government. I’m talking about resources from investors and private equity. I’m talking about real resources and tools that can help them make those films and distribute those films.”
Veteran director Richard Lawson will deliver a class on short-form filming, pointing to vertical video formats as high-growth avenues for contemporary creators.
“So this is a new market that’s available for creators who otherwise would not get a chance to show us their wares, Lawson said.” “And we’re going to give them the way to think about it, the way to do it, how to direct it, how to write it, how to produce it.”
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