Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Cinemalaya 2012


Now on its 8th year, Cinemalaya announces the finalists for the 2012 independent film festival, which will be shown from 20 to 29 July 2012 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and Ayala Mall Cinemas (Greenbelt and Trinoma). Below are the different indie films that made the cut:

New Breed Full Length Feature
  1. Emmanuel Palo’s “Santa Nina”
  2. Gino Santos and Jeff Stelton’s “The Animals”
  3. Vincent Sandoval’s “Aparisyon”
  4. Mes de Guzman’s “Diablo”
  5. Lemuel Lorca and Jerry Gracio’s “Intoy Syokoy ng  Kalye Marino”
  6. Alfred Aloysius Adlawan’s “Ang Katiwala”
  7. Marietta Jamora’s “Ang Nawawala”
  8. Paul Sta. Ana’s “Oros”
  9. Julius Sotomayor Cena’s “Mga Dayo”
  10. Loy Arcenas’ “Requieme”

New Breed Short Film
  1. Nadjoua Bansil’s “Bohe: Son of the Sea”
  2. Sigrid Andrea Bernardo’s “Ang Paghihintay sa Bulong”
  3. Mario Celada’s “Pasahero”
  4. Sheron Dayoc’s “As He Sleeps”
  5. Marianito Dio Jr.’s “Sarong Aldaw”
  6. Emmanuel Escalona, Jr.’s “Balintuna”
  7. Hannah Espia’s “Ruweda”
  8. Chuck Gutierrez’s “Ulian”
  9. Richard Legaspi’s “Manenaya”
  10. Jarell Serencio’s “Victor”

Director’s Showcase
  1. Adolfo Alix, Jr.’s “Kalayaan”
  2. Joey Javier Reyes’ “Mga Mumunting Lihim”
  3. Raymond Red’s “Kamera Obskura”
  4. Jun Lana’s “Bwakaw”
  5. Lawrence Fajardo’s “Posas”

Cinemalaya is a project of the Cinemalaya Foundation, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Film Development Council of the Philippines and Econolink Investments, Inc. It is an all-digital film festival and competition that aims to discover, encourage and honor cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers that boldly articulate and freely interpret the Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity.

The film festival is held every July of each year. Previously, screenings were only held at the CCP. But during recent years, participation of Ayala Malls have been secured to increase awareness and promote more public viewing by showing the finalist movies at their Greenbelt and Trinoma cinemas.

Every year, organizers invest PHP 500,000 to ten independent filmmakers (directors, producers). These ten finalists are selected from an annual average of hundreds of entries from all over the country. Their films debut at the festival, together with in-competition short films, as well as various out-of-competition works (showcase). The purpose is to help provide exposure to various quality indie films whose creators lack enough resources to produce films as compared to big-time, established mainstream film companies.

I try each year to watch as many featured films as possible. Apart from being entertaining, Cinemalaya films always try to present a fresh and "different" artsy look, which serves as a break from the traditional and typical Filipino films (which are mostly overrated, over-promoted and of less substance and quality). The stories of these indie films are unconventional, sometimes even weird (in good taste), and the overall worth are, most of the time, promising. There's no surprise that a number of Filipino independent films have already competed and won awards from film festivals around the world.

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