THE success of the Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) has led other small islands looking to establish their own boutique showcases of cinematic works to use it as a model.

A representative from the Caribbean islands of Nevis and St. Kitts attended the sixth annual Festival last month, hoping to gain an insight into how the BIFF format could be tailored to suit their needs.

"Our Tourism Minister would like to see one in St. Kitts, and he thought it would be a great idea for me to go to Bermuda and see how realistic it would be for 2005," explained Osbert (Ossie) Wilde.

"I'd heard about it through an associate in Ireland and thought it would be great to see how a festival had developed in a place like Bermuda. Nevis and St. Kitts are probably two-and-a half times the size of Bermuda but we have only 40,000 residents spread between the two islands so, for us, it enabled a great comparison."

According to director Aideen Ratteray Pryse, the group was pleased to be able to share its experience with a fledgling festival.

"Before we started BIFF in 1997, we solicited advice from colleagues at other film festivals, including Sundance and Toronto. Everyone that we contacted was very kind and most helpful, and gave us tips that we continue to apply today. That is why we were flattered to hear from Ossie, and keen to assist him. We hope that in some small way we have helped he and his colleagues as they work to get their festival off the ground."

Mr. Wilde, who actually lived in Bermuda some years ago and has relatives here, runs a media house, Liamuiga Studios, in St. Kitts. It was his work organising films as part of the Caribbean arts festival, Carifesta, however, that brought the Tourism Department of St. Kitts calling for his expertise.

As a consequence, he's visited various festivals, taking bits of information from each. Mr. Wilde said he was quite impressed with what he saw here.

"It's in its sixth year and still evolving but the thing which amazed me most about BIFF is the volunteer contribution; it was 95 to 97 percent volunteer driven, which is absolutely amazing. It was good to see that could be done because one of the things our Minister didn't want, was for it to be done by individuals in the Tourism Department, which is why I'd been brought in from the private sector. However, looking at the amount of time Aideen put in, I'd probably supervise it and put someone else there to run it."

The co-ordination of the volunteers was equally as impressive, and even more important as the St. Kitts festival is to be a joint venture with the neighbouring island of Nevis.

"I was so impressed with the organisation," said Mr. Wilde. "Particularly with their website, which the volunteers all had access to and which kept them up to date on who should be where and what they should be doing. It was a super setup.

"That kind of information is very important especially in our case where we have two islands - Nevis and St. Kitts - involved and would need to co-ordinate volunteers between the two. I'll probably be in touch with them in the future to see if (their programme) could be tailored to our environment. I learned so much - the merchandise and how it was important to the overall budget; ticket sales, etc. I was also impressed by the quality of panal they had for judging. Just to see how it all fit together was valuable to me."