The motion picture Guiana 1838 won the Best Feature Film of the Year Award at the 3rd. Belize International Film festival held recently at the Bliss Center in Belize City, Belize, in Central America. 

Competing films included Shah Rukh Khan in Swades, Subhash Ghai's Kisna, Con Game, Olive Harvest, Red passport, Story of an African farm, Out of Season Fuera de Temporada and U R 4 Given. 

The Belize International Film Festival is an annual week-long event that showcases an exciting diverse mix of recent films from Belize, the Caribbean, Southern Mexico and Central American regions as well as India, UK and the rest of the world. 

Guiana 1838, a Rohit Jagessar film, tells the story of Indians brought from India to labor on sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean and the West Indies during the 19th century. the film was invited by festival organizers as the opening film and with huge demand for tickets, was screened twice during the festival. The film stars Kumar Gaurav as Laxman and Aarti Bathija as Urmila.

A key element of the festival is the presence of invited filmmakers who were on hand to present their films as well as to host productions workshops and seminars and to dialogue with festival-goers. The Third Edition of the Festival took place Feb. 21 Feb. 28 entirely at the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts in Belize City in Central America.

At hand at the Bliss Center in Belize to receive the award for Best Feature Film of the Year was the film's director Mr. Rohit Jagessar. The filmmaker thanked voters for recognizing the unique language of cinema his film depicted and paid special tribute to Mr. Mickey Nivelli, the director of the first Indian themed movie made in the West Indies, The Right & The Wrong. Mr. Nivelli was invited on stage to present the award to Jagessar.

Guiana 1838 which opened in the US five months ago, took in the highest per screen average in the US on opening weekend. The film is also charted as the 17th highest per theater average for all films released in the US over the last twenty five years. The film will play in twelve additional US cities in May. The film was produced by Jagessar and his producing partner Dr. Hemant Shah.