Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) will be working to discover and support regional filmmakers, its chair Liza Diño said on Wednesday.
“[The] priority… [of] FDCP is to empower, to level the playing field,” Diño told CNN Philippines’ The Source. “The industry is very Manila-centric. Right now even the talented regional filmmakers are making their names outside the country, and hindi talaga silang nabibigyan ng [they are not given the]… platform to show their films here in Manila.”
Diño also said that FDCP allocated resources to support regional film festivals and in establishing its new project, Cine Lokal, and in setting up Cinametheque branches across the country.
Cine Lokal is a partnership with SM Cinemas that allots one theater in eight major malls — SM Mega Mall, SM North EDSA, SM Fairview, SM South Mall, SM Bacoor, SM Mall of Asia, SM Iloilo, and SM Cebu — for FDCP-curated content.
The project was launched on April 19 and is expected to last three years.
A Cinematheque is a small theater built not only for film screenings, but for FDCP programs such as trainings and workshops as well.
Apart from the theater in Manila, the FDCP has four other regional branches in Baguio, Davao, Iloilo, and Zamboanga.
Diño also expressed her goal in building a Cinematheque in every region, and eventually in every town and city.
Call for entries
Diño also invited all filmmakers, especially those in the regions, to showcase their work in a new festival, “Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino.”
“Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino is a celebration in lieu of Buwan ng Wika to screen exclusively all Filipino films for one week,” said Diño.
Around 10 to 12 films will share a minimum of 60 screens for each, and play in almost all 800 screens nationwide.
“I hope that we can discover films that are coming from the regional film communities, or [for] regional filmmakers, to see this as a platform also,” she added.
She said the festival is open to films that have not been released commercially. Each production may submit one film.
The call for entries closes on June 15.
Diño said Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino is “an audience-oriented festival,” which is set to screen a variety of films from different genres.
“We’re trying to also develop continuously our audience, and we want to know and listen to the films that they want to watch,” she said.
Diño added that for the next Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), they are also hoping to strike a healthy balance between the audience, cinemas, and filmmakers from both independent and commercial backgrounds.
Her comments come after the MMFF last year gained a lot of traction for deviating from the usual box office hits and exhibiting more indie films.
“I think these opportunities — the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino, MMFF — is a platform to blur out the lines. Films are films,” said Diño. “It’s finding that sweet spot on coming up with really good films, really good stories, but at the same time has really good commercial value, commercial appeal.”
