Paul Soriano, ‘Transit’ producer
“Transit” producer Paul Soriano has high hopes that their film, which has been picked as the official Philippine entry to the 2014 Academy Awards, will be shortlisted as nominee to the prestigious awards’ Best Foreign Language Film category.
“I think ‘Transit’ is bigger than a film. It’s now representing the Philippines. My prayer is that everyone in the film industry can come together and support ‘Transit’ to achieve the impossible… which is to make it the first Oscar nomination and the first Oscar win,” its producer Soriano told ABS-CBN News in an interview.
No Filipino film has been nominated for best foreign language film in The Oscars’ history. In 2009, the Judy Ann Santos-starrer “Ploning” failed in its Oscar bid. The same happened with the succeeding entries “Ded na si Lolo,” “Noy,” “Ang Babae Sa Septik Tank” and “Bwakaw.”
According to Soriano, doing “Transit” was risk from the start but they were all worth taking for the pride of the country.
“Honestly, when we made this film, from the beginning, it was all just a big risk. I funded the film out of my own pocket. That was a big risk on my part – to trust Hannah Espia, a film graduate, to direct the film in Israel, to have Filipinos speaking Hebrew and to tackle a pretty controversial issue in Israel. But at the end of the day, as a filmmaker, we believe in the story. We are so happy that besides the 10 awards at Cinemalaya, it’s now the official entry of the Philippines to the Oscars,” he said.
Soriano said he would rather focus on their film’s campaign to The Oscars rather than dwelling on the intrigue following the movie’s selection.
“We heard that we’ll be needing a couple of million dollars (to promote it) and that’s 10 times, 20 times more than the budget of the film. But we believe that we will get the support we need and that people will rally behind this film. When it’s for the country, I think we should all come together,” he said.
Soriano shared of the good news that “Transit” had supporters in the US.
“I’ve got a lot of feedback and invitations from a lot of Hollywood film production companies that want to support the film. I’ve met with Hollywood producers. In time, I’ll let you know who they are but we have big support so we are very encouraged,” he related.
The 86th Academy Awards, set on March 2, 2014, will be hosted by TV host Ellen DeGeneres.
Producer urges Filipinos to rally behind ‘Transit’
Source: Mb.com.ph (September 26, 2013 at 05:29PM)
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