Film Academy of the Philippines meet with industry leaders at Cannes
MANILA, Philippines — Executives from the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) had a successful trip to Cannes, France, after meeting with several film agencies, industry award-giving bodies, and training institutions.
Director-general Paolo Villaluna led the agency in joining the Philippine delegation to this year's Cannes Film Festival and the coinciding Cannes Film Market.
In the south of France, FAP met with international film institutes and festivals, global partners for training in the Philippines, campaign strategists for industry awards, and international film worker guilds.
Villaluna noted in a statement that it has been a full year since FAP began operating in its new form as a government agency, adding that going to Cannes was a "necessary first introduction to the wider global film community."
"We hope to bring the world’s resources and expertise back home to benefit our workers and industry," he continued. "Cannes puts us in the same place, at the same time, as the institutions we want to work with for years to come: film agencies, festivals, training bodies, our regional neighbors."
The director-general also said FAP is ensuring local creatives have strong support systems that are at par with global standards by joining meetings to accomplish this goal.
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FAP's Film Awards and Events Division head Kristine Kintana joined Villaluna in meeting Tom Swayne of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to discuss the process of submitting to the Oscars, awards strategies, and the long-term capacity needed to support local films in major international awards circuits.
Kintana pointed out that a serious Oscars campaign requires resources and connections to build, and an expert within the Academy who will actually champion submitted works.
"You also need the right professionals running the operation — managing screenings, handling press, getting screeners to the right voters, staying on top of a long campaign," she added. "Filipino films can hold their own in major awards races, and our job is to make sure they have the government's support to do it."
To date, no Filipino film has been nominated or even made the Best International Film shortlist of the Academy Awards.
The chairman of film distributor Kino Lorber visited the Philippines' pavilion, which it shared with Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority to meet with the FAP team about the North American distribution of Rafael Manuel's "Filipiñana."
Kino Lorber acquired the movie, based on Manuel's short film of the same name, after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where it won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision.
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FAP also met with France's National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) and the British Film Institute, which, like the Infocomm Media Development Authority, have experience supporting their respective communities through training, public funding, festivals, and awards work.
Experts from Indonesia’s culture ministry additionally met with the Philippine delegation as they were interested in the agency's film database and audio-visual workers.
Celeste Joven, FAP's chief of staff, expressed excitement at Indonesia's interest, "Aside from initial discussions on experts exchange programs, we talked about the possibility of a Southeast Asia-wide professional database — a project pioneered in the Philippines which we're happy to share with the rest of the region."
Other meetings FAP held were with Jakarta Film Week, Bristol's Encounters Film Festival, Tatino Film Lab, Fest Film Lab, and the Location Managers Guild International — the latter three for the professional development for local film workers and skills-building pathways for location managers, scouts, stunt performers, and crews.
FAP's Film Worker Training and Research Division head Dan Morales credited the Cannes meetings and their agencies they met with who have the training infrastructure needed in the Philippines.
"We are leaving with real leads to follow up on, especially in cinematography, sound design, stunts, and the other crafts where stronger international training links can really change things for our workers," Morales said.
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