Nearly 200 volunteers give their time to ensure that the Bermuda International Film Festival runs smoothly, which means that there are plenty of unsung heroes during the festival's nine-day run.

One such individual is print traffic manager, Jeff Arnst, who had the responsibility of ensuring that the 74 films from 34 countries arrived in Bermuda on time - and then were shipped out, either back to the producer or distributor, or on to the next festival screening.

Each year, there are some close calls - and, this year, the "West Wittering Affair" takes top prize in the "boy, that was close" category.

The film was scheduled to screen last Friday night at 7 p.m. at Liberty Theatre. Only trouble was, the print was still in California on Thursday morning.

That's when Mr. Arnst sprang into action, arranging for overnight shipment from the west coast to the east coast overnight on Thursday, and then for delivery to Bermuda on Friday through a company, Midnight Express, that specialises in film festival print delivery. The print arrived in Bermuda on Friday at 3.30 p.m., was picked up at the Airport and delivered to the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel for preparation by the festival?s technical team. Once inspected and loaded onto reels, it was delivered to the Liberty Theatre at 6.40 p.m. by of the festival?s print traffic team.

Promptly at 7 p.m, the festival trailer ran, followed by the short film ,Jellybaby, and, at 7.15 p.m., by "West Wittering Affair".

Documentary filmmaker was scheduled to sit on the festival?s documentary jury, but a death in the family on Friday ruled out a trip to Bermuda., a journalist covering the festival for Book La, Buzzine and Allocine, has stepped into the breach and will select the winning documentary film at BIFF in tandem with Roger Durling, director of the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Some 100 senior secondary school students from three institutions enjoyed a free screening of the documentary film, ?King Leopold?s Ghost?, on Tuesday morning at the Liberty Theatre.

Students from CedarBridge Academy, Mount Saint Agnes Academy and Bermuda High School attended the screening, which is part of the BIFF Film Academy sponsored by festival sponsors, Butterfield Bank.

BIFF has been holding the free student screenings for the last five years.

When director and unit production manager arrived in Bermuda on Thursday, their short film, ?Avatar?, had featured in 42 film festivals worldwide, winning eight festival awards.

In just six days in Bermuda, those numbers swelled to 50 and nine. ?We are having an amazing time at the festival, and we keep receiving e-mails every day inviting us to more festivals,? Lluis says. ?We have been to many festivals in Spain, and throughout Europe, and before Bermuda we were in Colombia with our film.?

?Avatar? features in BIFF?s 86 Minutes of Shorts programme, which screens Thursday 4 p.m. at the Little Theatre, and Friday 9 p.m. at Liberty Theatre.

The series of six films also includes films by directors from Egypt, United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, including ?The Banker? by director (Winner, Best Film, British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and The Director, featuring in a mockumentary about his attempt to direct a film about baseball.