FDCP reveals next festivals

Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chair Briccio Santos

Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chair Briccio Santos is bullish about the future of the All Masters Edition of Sineng Pambansa despite his admission that the films they featured recently were far from blockbusters.

Santos maintains that the significance of the event allowed for “signals” to the film community that “supersede all economic considerations.”

“The films by the masters are definitely of top quality and are artistically meritorious,” he emphasized to Bulletin Entertainment in an exclusive interview.

Santos, who is among the earliest exponents and practitioners of independent cinema in the country, noted that for a new festival, the first-ever of its kind actually, the All Masters Edition of Sineng Pambansa did well. He cited how “the premieres for the individual entries were jam-packed affairs from Metro Manila all the way to Bacolod (with ‘Sonata’) and Iloilo (with the first-time director feature ‘Salvi’).”

He lauded the “all-out support” of SM Cinemas, the largest film exhibitor in the Philippines, as with the media in helping raise public awareness for the festival.

Not that he expected anything less. Santos said he wanted a huge hubbub for the festival and is hopeful that it will only get noisier and bigger in the coming years.

“If only there is an easy way that a greater segment of the population are compelled to go to the movies, that would have been really great! This is only the beginning. It will only get better,” he said.

Santos is hesitant to offer exact figures as with other technicalities that might’ve led to the less than stellar showing of the festival as far as the box-office is concerned. He was more than eager however, to reveal future plans including tweaks that might allow for improved numbers.

“For next year, we will have genre films for the festival in addition to the masters entries. These films will be more commercially viable since it will have action, comedy, horror and all other genres. (But) we are retaining the ‘masters’ branding and therefore will have genre films by them alongside the younger directors.”

The festival will still be held in partnership with SM, said Santos, including a planned “horror festival in November by the masters themselves.”

Prior to the National Film Festival in September, Santos said that the FDCP is also planning to create an international film festival “together with the next edition of the international film expo in June” with participating films coming from all over the globe including “China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, European countries, the South Americas as well as some ASEAN countries.”

“For this, we are looking at The Mall of Asia as prime venue,” he added. “This will have a competition and will be called World Premieres Film Festival. There will be a Filipino entry in the festival.”

FDCP reveals next festivals

Source: Mb.com.ph (September 30, 2013 at 03:11PM)

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