The room crackled with excitement as some 200 out of the total 300 volunteers gathered at FUNGLODE on Sunday to get their instructions and join up with their teams for this 4th edition of the Dominican Republic Global Film Festival.

Opening the meeting was Festival Director Omar de la Cruz who welcomed the volunteers from Santo Domingo, Santiago and Puerto Plata, and thanked them for their participation and priceless support in helping with this year’s Festival.

The 300 volunteers came to Santo Domingo for their training and will then disperse around the country to work at the five different Festival venues which includes Santo Domingo, Santiago, Puerto Plata, Nagua, Higuey, and Cap Cana.

Many of the volunteers participated in last year’s Festival, such as Guillermo Tabar, a graphic designer from Santo Domingo, who is in charge of meeting the invited international guests at the airport. Last year he met Shalim Ortiz; this year he looks forward to meeting big league baseball legend Barry Bonds and Puerto Rican-born Hollywood actor, Benicio del Toro.

Stephanie Pujols, teacher and law student is working in “general support” which she explained as “doing everything that comes up and needs to be done.”