Puregold CinePanalo Returns Bolder Than Ever: 7 Full-Length Films to Receive 3M Grant

June 8, 2024

Photo 1. The 2025 Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival is now accepting entries from bold

up-and-coming filmmakers.

Supermarket chain Puregold is investing even more resources in its advocacy campaign Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival by offering the highest production grants for full-length materials in the Philippines.

For its upcoming 2025 Puregold CinePanalo run, a whopping P3,000,000 full-length film production grant will be given to each of seven deserving professional and amateur directors, while 25 promising student filmmakers will each receive a P150,000 short film production grant.

Applications are now open to those aspiring to join the upcoming festival line-up. The deadline for full-length directors is on July 15, 2024. Meanwhile, student directors in the short film category must submit their applications before August 15, 2024.

“After a highly successful and celebrated inaugural run in March, Puregold is proud to have started its mark in the Philippine film industry,” says Puregold President Vincent Co. “We aim to continue this for the benefit of Filipino students and filmmakers. This year, we challenge more aspiring filmmakers to push boundaries, tackle new matters and experimental approaches while raising Filipino heritage and values.”

Puregold CinePanalo has two categories: short films for students and campus-based filmmakers and full-length films for amateur and professional directors. Unlike the previous festival run, Puregold CinePanalo now requires applicants to submit complete screenplays for their entries. This allows the Selection Committee to identify the most compelling and well-realized stories suited to the festival’s theme. Applications can be completed at the following LINK. 

All submitted entries must be uplifting stories centered on the theme of “Mga Kwentong Panalo ng Buhay.” 

Puregold senior marketing manager and festival director Ivy Hayagan-Piedad spoke on the importance of this theme. “We seek fresh perspectives in storytelling. Puregold CinePanalo aims to be a platform for local artists to take risks and be bold in their craft. Our goal is to bring more outstanding Filipino films to the national—and even global—stage,” she said.

The student shorts have a maximum runtime of 20 minutes, while the full-length films must have a minimum length of 90 minutes. All winning entries will be screened during the festival proper from March 14-25, 2025, at the Gateway Cinemas. Furthermore, all films in the festival lineup will be eligible for recognition at the Puregold CinePanalo Awards Night, which will be held on March 19, 2025.

The inaugural Puregold CinePanalo featured full-length films from directors such as Kurt Soberano, Sigrid Bernardo, Joel Ferrer, and more. Student shorts were produced by young filmmakers from UP Diliman, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, and other schools nationwide.

For further inquiries on the Puregold CinePanalo, potential applicants may email thesecretariat@cinepanalo.com.

Puregold Advocates for Pinoy Youth Talent through its CinePanalo Film Festival

July 26. 2023

The Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival will be held from March 8 to 10, 2024.

Student, amateur, and young professional filmmakers are poised to get their biggest break when they participate in Puregold’s CinePanalo Film Festival, an event that will feature new and original movies celebrating everyday winning moments in Filipinos’ lives.

The CinePanalo Film Festival will consider only wholesome, inspiring, and family-oriented film concepts as entries, which should revolve around the theme, “Mga Kwentong Panalo ng Buhay.” It will have two different categories: short films for students and campus-based filmmakers, and full-length films for amateur and professional participants.

The project will offer production grants to exemplary film concepts to help fund their creation. In the full-length category, a grant worth P2,500,000 each will be awarded to five select directors. Meanwhile, in the short film category, 25 grants worth P100,000 each will be given to aspiring student directors.

“Puregold has always believed in upholding education and supporting the talents of Filipino youth,” says Puregold President, Vincent Co. “We endeavor to give young people a more sustainable, energizing environment in which they may pursue their passions. This is the driving force behind our latest initiative, the CinePanalo Film Festival.”

Interested participants in both categories must submit the following: a duly accomplished entry form, a synopsis not longer than 300 words, a detailed sequence treatment, a resume of the director with links to sample works (if any), and a digital copy of the director’s profile photo. Interested participants may email thesecretariat@cinepanalo.com to receive the materials necessary to apply for the grant. All applications must be emailed back on or before October 27, 2023.

Puregold’s Senior Manager for Marketing, Ivy Piedad, says that the production grants may be what budding creatives need to kick-start their career in the film industry. “We will provide resources that every young filmmaker dreams of: the financial means to practice one’s craft and a screening in major cinemas as well as online. These tools will help spark their creativity and lead to a priceless first-hand education on producing high-quality content.”

Piedad stresses on the importance of advocating for the work of young student filmmakers in the short film category. “We want to reach out to fresh new talent that will help define the industry, and potentially spur Puregold’s retailtainment initiatives in the years to come,” she points out. “That’s why our short film category is open to students and campus-based filmmakers looking for their big break. We’ve also partnered with several schools in the country to reach out to the next generation of filmmakers.”

Award-winning filmmaker Chris Cahilig, CinePanalo festival director, speaks on what distinguishes it from other similar events, both foreign and local: “Unlike other film festivals, we will focus on films that inspire and uplift, crafted by Filipino filmmakers who want to share their talents with their peers.”

Puregold’s inaugural CinePanalo Film Festival is seeking aspiring filmmakers to be a part of this

historic event.

Each participant in the CinePanalo Film Festival must submit their fully produced film on or before March 1, 2024. All final submissions in the short film category must have a minimum runtime of 20 minutes and a maximum runtime of 30 minutes. All feature film submissions must be at least 90 minutes long.

All completed film entries will be screened during the festival period from March 8 to 10, 2024, at the Gateway Cinemas in Quezon City. Fully produced short film entries will be uploaded to the official Puregold Channel on YouTube, where these will join the company’s other digital retailtainment properties such as “GV Boys,” “Ang Babae sa Likod ng Face Mask,” “52 Weeks,” and “Ang Lalaki sa Likod ng Profile”.

The CinePanalo Film Festival marks Puregold’s latest foray into integrating its sustainability and retailtainment efforts. Such an approach has allowed Puregold to reach out to the next generation of shoppers who are rediscovering the joys of heartwarming Filipino culture and stories.

Be a part of this historic festival. The Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival is now open to interested filmmakers. For inquiries, please email thesecretariat@cinepanalo.com. 

(press release)

Dokyu Power to Screen A Documentary That Reminds us of our own Struggles in Health Care

April 2, 2022

In Romania, a night-club fire  killed 64 people and exposed a rot in the country’s healthcare system. This emboldened people to talk about its revealed cracks.

Ths the subject of Alexander Nanau’s film entitled “Collective” which is screening for free from April 1 to 3 via Cinema Centenario’s Moov, as part of Dokyu Power Film Festival. Dokyu Power started last February 25 and will culminate on April 9, 2022.

The film begins by showing actual footage taken by a witness of the 2016 fire at a rock club in Bucharest named Colectiv.  It exposes the faulty construction of the nightclub from the building materials used and the unsuitable fire or emergency exits. Some 400 people were inside the club and a total of 24 people died  immediately from the fire.

Many other people died months later at local hospitals while many suffered  non-life threatening burns. 

Câtâlin Tolontan, a reporter at Gazeta Sporturilor, a  paper in Romania, investigated this unfortunate incident and exposed Romania’s pharmaceutical and government corruption, which were related to the cause of death of the fire victims brought to the hospital. 

Collective was nominated for both the Academy Awards and BAFTA, on top of the over 40 accolades it garnered.

Collective may be accessed at cinemacentenario.com/dokyu-power.

*****

Dokyu Power is organized together with Dakila and its Active Vista Center. It is supported by Cinema Centenario, Purin Film Fund, Rappler’s Move.Ph, QCinema International Film Festival and Inter-Guild Alliance.

Dokyu Power organizers aim to inspire Filipinos to claim their voices and vote in the Philippine national elections in May 2022 by presenting stories that have parallels in  history and which show people's struggles towards empowerment. 

The documentaries in its roster captured critical times in history and also helped shape history. The films highlight characters who have fought corrupt institutions,broken stereotypes, and captured the attention of the world.

Aside from Collective, the festival will also screen Manila Lockdown: One of the Longest COVID Lockdowns in the World by Ditsi Carolino.

For festival updates, viewers may log on to Daang Dokyu’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/DaangDokyu. 

DAANGDOKYU.PH: Where Content Speaks Truth to Power

March 22, 2022

The internet has put a wealth of data, text, and images at our fingertips. It is also where a 15-second clip on TikTok can drastically alter opinions, or a meme posted on Facebook can be treated like a headline.

If the recent past has taught us anything, it’s that widespread access to the web can shift our political realities with dire consequences. We have witnessed this in the past decade, with the closure of broadcast networks and targeted attacks on the media. These are not only threats to press freedom, they erode our democratic institutions and rewrite our history - distorting the past to manipulate the future.

Amidst these distortions and manipulations, FilDocs and the Cultural Center of the Philippines are working together to launch DaangDokyu.ph - a dedicated virtual home on the web for Philippine documentaries.

(Site Screenshot from Press Kit)

Dokyu Base

The same domain that hosted the 2020 Daang Dokyu Film Festival continues to grow the ecosystem of truth-based narratives, by increasing access to credible information and education through Philippine documentaries.

DaangDokyu.ph aims to elevate the appreciation of documentaries by making them easier for viewers to find. Through a growing public database with detailed search functions, aided by tags and metadata, DaangDokyu.ph puts over a century’s worth of Philippine documentaries within quick reach.

Daangdokyu.ph also makes it more convenient for creators to share their work. The site features a submission tool, through which filmmakers can add their film to the database. Similar to other online movie databases, each film will have its own page, containing its creative and technical information, as well as promotional materials and downloads. Films that are already streaming on other platforms can feature their streaming links on their page, like free ad space.

(Site Screenshot from Press Kit)

Dokyu Mapping

“Documentaries can shed light on present issues and contemporary social conditions. But an underappreciated power of the documentary is its capacity to offer a way of approaching social memory. Films done more than 30 years ago, during and after the Marcos dictatorship, have been circulating on social media recently and are being used as reference to inform current debates surrounding the coming elections. 

When organized and presented systematically, documentaries, old and new, can become a staple material for social education. It is often claimed that Filipinos never learn from the past, or that Filipinos are forgetful. What is not said often enough is that remembering and looking back on the past are not simple. Our collective lessons and memory have to continuously be made accessible to the new generation. And documentaries are one powerful way of doing this.” wrote filmmaker and Project Director for DaangDokyu.ph, Jewel Maranan.

It was Maranan’s initiative to map the Philippine documentary landscape that forged the path for DaangDokyu.ph. After gathering over 1,500 titles, launching the online database is the next step in this difficult process of looking back. With the database available for the viewers to explore and for creators to expand, DaangDokyu.ph offers a way of looking back and learning collectively.

(Site Screenshot from Press Kit)

Dokyu Power

On top of providing access to a wealth of information about Filipino documentaries, DaangDokyu.ph also co-hosts special programs with partner organizations who are on the same mission against misinformation.

Until April 9, the online festival Dokyu Power (The Power of Documentary), will be streaming some of the most powerful documentaries from around the world to encourage meaningful and informed political discourse on the power of people’s unity and social action. 

Presented by FilDocs (the team that organized the 2020 Daang Dokyu Festival) and DAKILA, and supported by Purin Pictures, Active Vista, MOOV Cinema Centenario, and Move.PH, Dokyu Power is streaming for FREE until April 9 through the Cinema Centenario site: https://cinemacentenario.com/

Visit DaangDokyu.ph to learn more. (Alice Sarmiento 9 Mar 2022)

 

REP Brings Christmas Theater Magic to Homes with The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-Off!

November 4, 2021

Repertory Philippines (REP) is back and determined to make this year’s Christmas merrier and brighter by bringing holiday cheer to every home with "The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-off!", which marks many firsts. It is the first REP Theatre for Young Audiences (RTYA) offering in over a year. It is also the first-ever Filipino production to be available on streaming platform Broadway On Demand. This also makes the musical the first in the country that is purposely filmed for an international online streaming service.

Screening from November 12 to December 12, 2021, "The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-off!" combines the time-honored tradition of Christmas cookies with the ever-popular phenomenon of reality baking competitions. It features eight young cookie chefs from all over the country who will battle it out for first prize at the Cookie Coliseum. As the chefs are eliminated one by one by three distinguished celebrity judges, feelings of intense (and sweet!) rivalry give way to virtues of charity, family, and forgiveness. 

Rick Hip-Flores

The music, book and lyrics of "The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-off!" was by Broadway-based American composer, lyricist and musical supervisor Rick Hip-Flores, the musical director of "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812", and music supervisor of "In Transit", Broadway’s first a-cappella musical. For this local adaptation, there had been changes in the names of characters and places to give a more Filipino flavor.

Created with the streaming audiences in mind, The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-off! is directed for the stage by veteran RTYA Creative Director Joy Virata, with sets by Ed Lacson, lights by John Batalla, costumes by Bonsai Cielo, and choreography by Deana Aquino.  After a month of Zoom rehearsals, the final video was shot by movie director Treb Monteras and his Silver Media crew on the final day of a 4-day bubble period at Rep's home stage at OnStage Theater in Greenbelt 1.

The musical’s cast consists of brilliant talents in the industry. Playing the eight kid chefs are: Becca Coates (as Patty), Tim Pavino (as Javi), Jep Go (as Gabe), Jillian Ita-as (as Ana), Luigi Quesada (as Julian), Rachel Coates (as Samantha), Justine Narciso (as Amy), and Steven Hotchkiss (as Josh). Playing the judges are: Carla Guevara Laforteza (as Isabel Guevara), Jamie Wilson (as Del Ray), and Arnel Carrion (as Michael Holmes). Rounding up the list is Hans Eckstein (as host Larry).

The cast (from top row left going clockwise): Jill Ita-as, Jep Go, Becca Coates, Luigi Quesada, 

Steven Hotchkiss, Tim Pavino, Justine Narciso and Rachel Coates

(Promotional photo from Rep)

Because of the pandemic restrictions especially for children, who are the primary target audience of this show, "The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-off!" will be streamed online through REP’s innovative and first-in-the-Philippines partnership with Broadway On Demand, a virtual performing arts complex that offers exclusive livestream events, educational and interactive content, and a wide-ranging library of video on demand content including Broadway shows, movie musicals, performances from individual artists, concert series, and content from performance venues and theaters around the world. 

Ticket prices are P700 (Regular) and P1,000 (Family) available directed from Broadway on Demand (LINK), or from local outlets Ticketworld (LINK) and Ticket2Me (LINK). Each ticket gives 24-hour access (for Regular) or 48-hour access (for Family) to the musical, which can be accessed via computer or mobile device through a web browser or via tablet or smartphone through the Broadway On Demand app on App Store and Google Play. Broadway On Demand is also available on AppleTV and Roku. 

For updates, log on to www.repertoryphilippines.ph,like and follow Repertory Philippines on Facebook and Instagram.Educators and school representatives who are interested in the show can email sales@repphil.org.

DIZI-IT FOREVER! The drama and romance continue with “Endless Love Season 2” on ETC Channel

June 13, 2021

Good news for the lovers of dizi (or Turkish drama series) in the Philippines! ETC Channel unveils the second season of the hit Turkish drama series “Endless Love” beginning June 14, Monday. 

“Endless Love,” or “Kara Sevda” in its home country, is a popular and award-winning dizi starring Turkish heartthrob Burak Özçivit and prominent Turkish actress Neslihan Atagül as lovers Kemal and Nihan who come from different social backgrounds. The poor boy and rich girl go through very difficult challenges imposed by their situations and families, forcing Nihan to sacrifice her love in order to keep a family secret from being revealed.

In 2020, ETC made a bold move to offer more local content in their mostly English program lineup, first by airing Filipino movies and then by presentingTurkish series dubbed in Tagalog by way of the  ETCerye primetime block. The first two dizi to air on the block were “Everywhere I Go” and “Endless Love Season 1.” 

The audience response was unprecedented as the Tagalized Turkish dramas gained high ratings, especially for “Endless Love.” According to Kantar Media, 114 of the 115 episodes of “Endless Love Season 1”primetime telecast garnered triple-digit ratings; 21 episodes recorded 400+ points, seven got 500+ points while two episodes: Episode 68 and Episode 114 obtained 664.24 points and 608.43 points, respectively. The Season 1 finale week of March 22 to March 26 became the second-highest rating week with 455.87 points. Thus, “Endless Love Season 1” is officially the highest-rated series in ETC’s 17-year history. 

Season 2 promises to be more compelling. Nihan leaves Kemal who gets imprisoned due to a shooting incident. When Kemal finishes his prison term, his relationship with Nihan becomes strained even hateful. Meanwhile, Emir, the wealthy and powerful man Nihan married out of family pressure, still wants Nihan for himself and Kemal out of the picture for good. Hostility between Emir and Kemal reach an all-time high and Nihan’s presence precariously swings the balance between both sides. More secrets unravel and true intentions and allegiances are uncovered.

“Just like the title of the highest-rated series in ETC’s history, our commitment to our viewers is an ‘Endless Love,’” said Mr. Wilson Tieng, CEO of ETC’s parent company Solar Entertainment. “We thank the audience for their support. In the midst of the changing times, we assure our viewers can that ETC will continue to offer shows and movies that make them feel good and inspired.”

The three-episode premiere of “Endless Love Season 2” is on June 13, Sunday at 7-10 pm, regular airing from Monday to Friday at 8 pm beginning June 14; replays at 1 pm on weekdays, and catch-up marathons every Sunday at 1 pm. 

ETC is seen on SkyCable Ch.16, Cignal Ch. 21, CableLink Ch. 34, DTT Ch. 21 in Metro Manila, and in over 200 cable operators nationwide.

If you have signal problems on your digital TV box, rescan to continue enjoying ETC.For updates, follow ETC on Facebook and etc_channel on Instagram and YouTube.

QCinema Unveils Line-up for Hybrid Edition

November 20, 2020

QCinema International Film Festival stages a hybrid festival with an edgy line-up for its special edition for 2020.   

Known for its well-curated films in this side of Southeast Asia, QCinema Special Edition returns with a slate that will either be streamed online or physically screened with a limited audience. It will take place from November 27 to December 5, 2020.

“Like many other film festivals around the world, we’ve had to adapt to the unprecedented challenges of 2020.  Factoring in safety concerns and restrictions, we’ve decided to follow the global trend of staging a hybrid film festival,” says Ed Lejano, festival director.

The festival’s socially-distanced and by-invitation-only screenings will be held on its opening day, November 27 and on November 28 at an outdoor venue in Quezon City.  

For its opening on November 27, QCinema will screen the monochromatic version of "Parasite" by Bong Joon-ho, the 2019 winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars. This black and white version of "Parasite" was first released at the Rotterdam Film Festival last January.

    QCinema will also have a ceremonial turnover of the COVID-19 assistance grant it is giving     to the Inter-Guild Alliance. It will also announce the winners of its COVID Completion                Grant (for chosen independent films forced to halt production and post-production during         the pandemic lockdown) and the QCShort Shorts Competition.

On November 28, it will hold outdoor theatrical screenings of two more films to a limited number of viewers. These are:

    "Identifying Features" by Fernande Valadez (Mexico) premiered at the Sundance Film         Festival 2020, where it won the Best Screenplay and the Audience Award. It is about a            woman who tries to find her son's whereabouts after he left Mexico to find work in the             United States. More recently, it also won as Best Film at the Zurich Film Festival last month,     and again at the 61st Thessaloniki Film Festival just this week. 

    "Death of Nintendo" by Raya Martin (Philippines) had its world premiere at Berlinale            2020. It is a coming-of-age film set in the 1990s that takes us into the colorful pop culture        world of four teenage friends, back in the days when video games were still a novelty.

    After the screening, QCinema will host the book launch of "Philippine Cinema" by Gaspar     Vibal and Dennis Villegas and edited by Teddy Co.

The festival’s online screening will be released nationwide through UPSTREAM, the newly launched online Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) streaming platform. Tickets may be purchased from the country’s largest aggregator for online cinema ticketing, GMovies.

A. QCINEMA GREATS: 

    Three former QCinema best picture winners stage a comeback.  These are                            "Cleaners" (2019) by Glenn Barit; "Oda sa Wala" (2018) by Dwein Baltazar; and                "Balangiga Howling Wilderness" (2017) by Khavn.  The fourth is the big winner at the         recent Urian awards, "Babae at Baril" (2019) by Rae Red. 

B. ASIAN SPECIAL EDITION: 

    "Genus, Pan" by Lav Diaz is a look at how much human beings are like animals.  The film     won for Lav Diaz the best director award in the 2020 Venice Film Festival.  

    "Roh" is a 2019 Malaysian Malay-language indie art-house horror film by Emir Ezwan. It is     Malaysia’s entry to the 93rd Academy Awards. It is about a strange little girl with a                    frightening prediction.

C. NEW HORIZONS (for first and second-time filmmakers who are receiving accolades from the international film festival circuit):

    "Song Without a Name" is a 2019 Peruvian drama film directed by Melina León. It was         screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It is also the     Peruvian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. It is         about a mother who takes her newborn baby to a health clinic, but the baby and the clinic        both disappear.

    "Rom" by Tran Thanh Huy, the first Vietnamese film to receive the New Current Awards at     the 24th Busan International Film Festival. It is about residents who live a desperate life in        an apartment complex that is slated for demolition.

D. RAINBOW QC (for LGBT-themed films)

    "End of the Century" is an Argentine romantic drama film, directed by Lucio Castro and            released in 2019.  

    "Suksuk" is a 2019 award-winning and critically acclaimed Hong Kong drama written and        directed by Ray Yeung. It presents the story of two secretly homosexual married men in         their twilight years.

E. SCREEN INTERNATIONAL: 

    "Divine Love" by Gabriel Mascaro is a Brazilian drama screened in the World Cinema         Dramatic Competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, 

    "True Mothers", a Japanese drama film by Naomi Kawase was in 2020 Cannes Film            Festival selection.  Based on a 2015 novel by Mizuki Tsujimura., this is Japan’s entry to the     93rd Academy Awards. 

    "Corpus Christi" is a Polish film by Mateusz Pacewicz, which premiered at the 2019            Venice Film Festival and is the Polish entry in the 92nd Academy Award. It is about a                reformed criminal who is prevented from applying to the seminary after his release. He            dresses as a priest and ministers a small town parish.

QCinemas Special Edition 2020 will include online talks on the new filmscape and free screenings of QCinema 2016, 2017, and 2019 shorts.

The film festival is supported by Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, Film Development Council of the Philippines, Outpost, Viva Communications, Inc., Treasury Wine Estates, Beringer Wine, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Megamobile, Inquirer.net, Clickthecity.com, Cinema Bravo, Cinema Bravo PH, Film Geek Guy, Film Police Reviews, Pelikula Mania, Blog-ph.com, Lakwatsera Lovers, and WheninManila.com.

More about the festival are at qcinema.ph.