‘Pusong Bato’ tops Cinemalaya fest; 2016 finalists announced

A short film about a woman who falls in love with a rock has topped the 2015 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition.

The winners were announced Saturday evening during the simple, elegantly understated awards night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the home of the Cinemalaya festival for the last 11 years.

CCP vice president and artistic director Chris B. Millado, who is also 2015 Cinemalaya Festival director, said the 11th edition of the indie film festival and competition will be “remembered as the year of the short films and the year the short films dominated the box office.” The Short Feature category was the main and only category at this year's festival.

Millado called on Cinemalaya followers to “support all indie film festivals all over the country as a form of promoting and advancing the cinematic genre in the Philippines.”

Martika Ramirez Escobar’s “Pusong Bato” was named Best Short Film, while Angelie Mae Macalanda’s “Wawa” received both the Special Jury Prize and the NETPAC Award.

“Pusong Bato” was recognized “for its playfulness in telling a story, for creating tension between nostalgia and loneliness, and for taking risks without being absurd.”

The film tackles the story of a faded, middle-aged actress who tries to relive her glory days as a movie star in the 1970s through watching films at home every day. Then one day, an earthquake rouses her from her “Hollywood dreaming.”

As Best Short Film winner, “Pusong Bato” won a cash prize of P150,000 and the Balanghai trophy.

“Wawa,” about a boy’s recollections of his father on his way to bury him, was given the Special Jury Prize for “its engaging use of location to evoke longing and for its poetic depiction of grief” and also garnered the NETPAC Award for “its evocation of grief and the impermanence of life by a grippingly visual funeral ceremony on the river.”

Petersen Vargas won the Best Direction award for his “Lisyun Qng Geografia.”

Vargas was saluted for his “effective harnessing of the technical elements of filmmaking in telling a simple story” of a boy who finds an old map that triggers him to retrace the places that are special to him and his high school best friend.

Darwin Novicio’s “Papetir” received the Best Screenplay Award. Novicio directed his own script.

“Papetir” was commended “for its interesting presentation of contrast in what is being stated and what is actually happening.”

Kenneth Dagatan’s “Sanctissima,” about a mother and her dark secrets shared with her only child, won the Audience Choice Award. The award is accompanied by a cash prize of P25,000.

The Cinemalaya Foundation also announced Sunday evening the finalists for the 2016 Cinemalaya Main Competition (Full-length Feature). The finalists will receive production grants of P750,000 each, representing an increase from the previous years’ P500,000.

The Main Competition finalists are:

• “Ang Bagong Pamilya Ni Ponching” by Inna Salazar and Victor Villanueva;
• “Ang Mga Bisita Ni Mamang” by Janice O’Hara and Denise O’Hara;
• “Dagsin” by Atom Magadia;
• “Hiblang Abo” by Ralston Jover;
• “I America” by Ivan Andrew Payawal;
• “Kusina” by David Corpuz and Cenon Palomares;
• “Lando At Bugoy” by Vic Acedillo, Jr.;
• “Mercury Is Mine” by Jason Paul Laxamana;
• “Pamilya Ordinaryo” by Eduardo Roy, Jr; and
• “Tuos” by Derick Cabrido

The 2016 Cinemalaya festival will run from August 5 to 14 next year at the CCP and other festival venues.

Cinemalaya Foundation president Laurice Guillen said the festival is “expanding its mission to the training of practitioners in key aspects of film production and serving as an inspiration to independent filmmaking in Asia.”

Guillen said the Cinemalaya Foundation inaugurated the Cinemalaya Institute, which offers several short courses on film producing, screenwriting, and directing.

The annual Cinemalaya film festival is a project of the Cinemalaya Foundation and the CCP. — BM, GMA News