Wim
Wenders’ Pina
& Ridley Scott/Kevin Macdonald’s Life
in a Day are
Opening & Closing Films at Cinemanila 2011
Two
documentaries by three great European filmmakers -- the 3D film Pina
(2011)
by New German Cinema master Wim
Wenders, and Life
in a Day
(2011) by Ridley
Scott & Kevin
Macdonald
(Oscar-winning director of films such as The
Last King of Scotland,
Touching the Void,
and One Day in
September) -- will be
the Opening and Closing Films, respectively, at the 2011 Cinemanila
International Film Festival at Market! Market! in Taguig City.
Behold
magnificent dancing in 3D on 11.11.11, when Cinemanila screens on
Opening Night Wim Wenders’ 3D dance documentary, Pina,
about one of the most influential modern dance choreographers, German
Philippina "Pina" Bausch. The film was a hit when it
premiered Out of Competition at the 61st
Berlin International Film Festival, and has been selected as the
German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th
Academy Awards.
Moviegoers
who enjoyed excerpts of Pina Bausch’s work in Pedro Almodovar’s
Talk to Her (2002)
will be delighted as some of the most noted dance pieces by Bausch in
the Tanztheater (“dance theater”) style appear in the film.
Bausch
was preparing the documentary with Wenders when she unexpectedly
passed away. Wenders cancelled film production, but the other dancers
of Tanztheater persuaded him to make the film anyway. The result is a
work that has been described by critics as “Thrilling
and revelatory.”
(Nick James, Sight & Sound Editor, writing for The Observer), a
“Must-see.”
(Leslie Felperin, Variety), “Beautiful
and moving.” (Dave
Calhoun, Time Out), and “Beguiling
magic.” (Tim Robey,
The Telegraph).
This
is the first time the 13-year-old festival will screen a 3D film.
Meanwhile,
Life in a Day
by Ridley Scott (producer) & Kevin Macdonald (director), a
crowdsourced documentary showing respective occurrences from around
the world on a single day, July 24, 2010, will bring Cinemanila to a
close on 11.17.11. The film is an arranged series of video clips --
with Scott, Macdonald, and film editor Joe Walker as editors --
selected from 80,000 clips (4,500 hours of footage from 140 nations)
to the YouTube video sharing website.
The
film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, earned generally
rave reviews: “Moving
and insightful.”
(Helen O'Hara, Empire); “A
profound achievement.”
(Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post); “Undeniably
real and incredibly inspiring.”
(Peter Howell, Toronto Star,); “Brims
with intimacy and urgency.”
(Angela Watercutter, Wired); “The
best time capsule in the history of the world.”
(Josh Levs, CNN Newsroom); and “Breathtaking…riveting.”
(Ian Buckwalter, Washingtonian).
But
perhaps CNN's Mark Rabinowitz articulated best the critics’
sentiment: “A
rousing success of an experiment: quite possibly the first
large-scale, global use of the Internet to create meaningful and
beautiful art.”
Superstar Nora Aunor
to Receive Cinemanila’s Lifetime Achievement Award on 11.11.11
The 2011 Cinemanila International Film
Festival, in cooperation with the City of Taguig under the leadership
of Mayor Lani Cayetano, will pay tribute to one of the Philippines'
most accomplished actresses, Nora Aunor (born Nora Cabaltera
Villamayor on May 21, 1955 in Iriga City, Camarines Sur), by
bestowing her with the Lifetime Achievement Award on 11.11.11, during
the festival’s Opening Night. Aunor is popularly regarded as the
Superstar for her stellar achievements and enormous contribution --
as actor, singer, TV host, and producer -- to the entertainment
industry.
As part of the homage to the
multi-awarded Aunor, a short video tribute will be shown during the
presentation of the award. And throughout the festival, Cinemanila
will screen (with English subtitles) classic films showcasing Aunor's
legendary acting talent, including Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos
(1976), Minsa'y Isang Gamu-Gamo (1976), Bona (1980),
and Himala (1982), winner in 2008 of the CNN APSA (Asia
Pacific Screen Awards) Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific
Film of all Time.
Indeed, Nora Aunor is a world-class
artist as shown by the list of international organizations which gave
her a Best Actress award, including the Cairo Film Festival (The
Flor Contemplacion Story, 1995), East Asia Film and Television
Festival (Bakit May Kahapon Pa?, 1997), Brussels Festival of
Independent Films (Naglalayag, 2004). She was also nominated
in the Berlin Film Festival for Himala and awarded the
Certificate of Honor in the Cannes Film Festival for Bona.
With the Cinemanila Lifetime
Achievement Award, Aunor will join an exceptional group of
individuals who received the same award, such as US filmmakers
Quentin Tarantino (2007) and Paul Schrader (2009), Indonesian actress
and filmmaker Christine Hakim (2003), film programmers Aruna Vasudev
and Philip Cheah (2006), Pusan International Film Festival founding
director Kim Dong Ho (2005), and fellow Filipino artists Vilma Santos
(2003), Eddie Romero (2004) & Dolphy (2010). Aside from these
personalities, other special guests who graced Cinemanila in the past
include Jafar Panahi (The Circle, 2000) and Fernando Meirelles
(City of God, 2002).
Cinemanila’s Horror
Picture Show: Halloween in November
The 2011 Cinemanila International Film
Festival extends Halloween when it screens from 11.11.11 to 11.17.11,
at the Market! Market! Cinemas in Taguig City, four horror/thriller
films guaranteed to scare the wits out of you in its Horror
Picture Show program.
Grab on to your theater seats as
filmmaker Kim Jee-Woon tells you a violent tale of murder and revenge
in I Saw the Devil (Akmareul boatda, South Korea, 2010). Find
out what happened to a teenage girl and a 7-year-old girl who both
disappeared in the woods in Ryuta Miyake’s Vanished: Age 7
(Nanatsu made wa kami no uchi, Japan, 2011). Try and hide in The
Tunnel (Australia, 2011) by Filipino director and Cannes Film
Festival winner Carlo Ledesma. And if you haven’t had enough
spooks, startles, and screams, investigate the mysterious goings-on
in a dance academy in Suspiria (Italy, 1977), the surreal
horror classic by the Master of Horror himself, Dario Argento, one of
this year’s Cinemanila Lifetime Achievement awardees.
Cinemanila Launches New Section: The
Beautiful Game
For cinephiles and sports fans alike,
the 2011 Cinemanila International Film Festival, happening from
11.11.11 to 11.17.11 in Taguig City, is an event not to be missed.
The 13th edition of Cinemanila will inaugurate a new
program called The Beautiful Game, featuring the world's most
popular sport -- now played by around 250 million players in over 200
countries -- football or soccer. To be screened in this new section
of Cinemanila are films as diverse as the nationalities and styles of
the athletes playing the game.
This year’s cinematic line-up will
include documentaries about the world’s football heroes. Journey
with a young American who struggles to reach his dreams of playing in
the elite European leagues and the World Cup in Rise & Shine:
The Jay DeMerit Story (2011). Immerse yourself in the intensity
and flow of a single soccer match as 17 synchronized cameras follow
French footballer Zinedine Zidane in Zidane, A 21st Century
Portrait (2006). Then open your eyes to the relationship of
crime, sports and politics in the gripping The Two Escobars
(2010), the intertwined story of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and
Colombian football star Andres Escobar who paid dearly for scoring an
“own goal” in the 1994 World Cup.
Of course, soccer has always been great
fodder for fiction as well, and Cinemanila has a feast of films to
offer depending on your mood. Get a dose of social reality in Jafar
Panahi’s Offside (2006), about Iranian girls attempting to
watch a World Cup qualifying match despite their country’s law
forbidding them to do so because of their sex. Then laugh as two
young football-crazed Tibetan refugee novice monks in a remote
Himalayan monastery in India desperately try to obtain a TV for the
monastery to watch the 1998 World Cup final in The Cup (1999) by
Bhutanese director Khyentse Norbu. And if you want drama, witness the
rise and fall of a football star in The Striker with Number 9
(1989) by Greek filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris. But if you fancy a
combination of comedy and drama, enjoy -- in one of the festival’s
outdoor screenings -- the critically-acclaimed and international hit
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) by Gurinder Chadha, and starring
Parminder Nagra & Keira Knightley. Finally, if you like
coming-of-age stories, watch Happyland (2010) -- by the
Philippines’ very own Jim Libiran (with a cameo by Azkals star Phil
Younghusband) -- about a group of street kids who form a soccer team.
Taguig is no stranger to banner
headlines about football in their city, as the popular Azkals team
has a close relationship with Taguig, and its leader Mayor Lani
Cayetano, having trained and having held football clinics there in
the recent past. With Cinemanila’s new The Beautiful Game
program, the Taguigeños -- together with the rest of their
countrymen and international visitors -- will have another soccer
event, certainly as exciting as the World Cup, to look forward to.
Cinemanila 2011 Announces Young
Cinema Short Films (Competition and Exhibition)
The 2011 Cinemanila International Film
Festival recently announced the finalists for its Young Cinema
program, which is divided into two categories: Shorts in
Competition and Shorts in Exhibition.
Cinemanila’s Young Cinema is
one of the centerpieces of the festival, showcasing short films from
up-and-coming filmmakers. Two awards will be given: the Ishmael
Bernal Award for Most Outstanding Young Filmmaker, and Best
Short Film. Filmmakers who screened their first or early shorts
in Cinemanila and won the Ishmael Bernal Award include Mes de Guzman
(2001), Raya Martin (2004), John Torres (2005), and Remton Siega
Zuasola (2009). They have since done films that have been shown and
won awards in prestigious festivals abroad like the Cannes,
Rotterdam, Pusan and Berlin International Film Festivals.
SHORTS IN COMPETITION
123 by Carlo Obispo
Ang Gugma ni Olivia (Olivia’s
Love) by Christian Linaban
Canto III by Keith Sicat
Inosensya (Innocence) by Mikhail
Red
Kapatid (Brothers) by Steven
Flor
Saranghae My Tutor by Victor
Villanueva
Sirip (Glimpse) by Kim Camelo
SHORT IN EXHIBITION
Agos (Waves) by Samantha Lee
Bleached by Jess dela Merced
Dadi by Ilsa Malsi
Huling Araw ng Pagsisilbi (Last Day
of Service) by Bienvenido O. Ferrer III
Leaving Home by Epoy Deyto
Manenaya (Waiting) by Richard
Legaspi
Pangako (Promise) by Sari Raissa
Lluch Dalena
Sydney-Manila Express by Bor
Ocampo
Cinemanila 2011 to Hold Short Film
Seminar by International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Programmer
The 2011 Cinemanila International
Film Festival, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Manila and
Taguig City under the leadership of Mayor Lani Cayetano, will hold at
the Bonifacio Global City on 11.14.11, from 4 to 6 pm, a short film
seminar by Herbert Schwarze, programmer and member of the
selection committee for the International Short Film Festival
Oberhausen, one of the largest short film festivals in the world.
The seminar will precede Young Cinema Night, which is the
premiere of the films in competition and exhibition of Cinemanila’s
own short film program, Young Cinema.
Schwarze will screen 90 minutes worth
of some of the best and prize-winning shorts in Oberhausen’s
International Competition, including works from Uganda, South Africa,
Portugal, Canada, France, and Poland. He will then talk about the
Oberhausen Festival and its history. The following day, on 11.15.11,
Schwarze will participate in a meet and greet with the participating
Young Cinema filmmakers.
The International Short Film Festival
Oberhausen, founded in 1954, is one of the oldest short film
festivals in the world, and one of the major international platforms
for the short form. It is unique in the range
of forms and genres it presents to the public, and particularly
well-known for its spotlight on experimentation. In the course of
more than five decades, filmmakers and artists ranging from Roman
Polanski to Cate Shortland, from George Lucas to Pipilotti Rist, have
presented their first works in Oberhausen.
The festival
organizes an International Competition, German Competition and
International Children’s and Youth Film Competition as well as the
MuVi Award for best German music video and, since 2009, the NRW
Competition for productions from the German state of North
Rhine-Westphalia.
Oberhausen is
also known for its strong line of thematic programs such as “From
the Deep” in 2010, which presented early films from before 1918, or
“Shooting Animals” in 2011, a program about the history of the
artistic and scientific animal film. The festival also operates a
well-stocked Video Library, a non-commercial short film distribution
branch, and a unique archive of short films from more than 50 years
of festival history. The 58th edition will take place from April 26
to May 1, 2012 with the big thematic program focusing on the
50th anniversary
of the Oberhausen Manifesto from 1962.
Herbert Schwarze is one of the program
curators and members of the selection committee for the International
Short Film Festival Oberhausen since 1997. He is also a filmmaker,
dramatic adviser, script consultant, and author.
This is the first collaboration of
Cinemanila and Oberhausen.
Cinemanila 2011 Launches Moonlight
Series with Soccer Film Bend It Like Beckham
The 2011 Cinemanila International Film
Festival, in partnership with the City of Taguig, will launch the
Cinemanila Moonlight Series on 11.14.11 with the screening of
the critically-acclaimed and international hit Bend It Like
Beckham (2002) -- by British filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, and
starring Parminder Nagra & Keira Knightley -- on the lawn of
Bonifacio High Street at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
The Cinemanila Moonlight Series
are twice-a-week (Thursdays and Fridays) outdoor film screenings
taking place from 7 pm onwards at the cozy green spaces of BGC.
Scheduled to coincide with the Philippines’ dry season, the series
will run from January to May, starting in 2012.
The Moonlight Series will bring
together contemporary, classic, and cult films from all corners of
the globe to entertain and delight the entire family. Before each
screening, there will be DJs or musicians to set the mood as well as
competitions with prize giveaways. And to make sure no one goes
hungry, there will be on-site food vendors.
Joining the ranks of other
international film screening events such as the NoMa Summer Screen
festival in Washington D.C., the Cinemanila Moonlight Series aims to
become Southeast Asia's premier outdoor cinema event. In this regard,
Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano expressed their city’s enthusiasm for
the project: “The government and people of Taguig are delighted and
honored that Cinemanila has chosen our city as the venue for the
Moonlight Series, which is aligned with our thrust to promote
education, culture and the arts.”
-->
And what exciting and enjoyable
education the citizens and visitors of Taguig are going to get. So on
11.14.11, get a taste of the fun and the Philippines’ new and
unique outdoor screening season. Just bring your blankets and low
lawn chairs, and picnic with friends and family under the moon and
the stars.
Cinemanila 2011 Announces Finalists
for Digital Lokal
The 2011 Cinemanila International Film
Festival recently announced the finalists for Digital Lokal, its
competition for Filipino feature-length films in digital format:
- Sakay sa Hangin by Regiben Romana
- Señorita by Vincent Sandoval
- Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa by Mes de Guzman (Philippines)
- Lawas Kanpinabli by Christopher Gozum
The following prizes will be awarded:
Digital Lokal Lino Grand Prize
Digital Lokal Best Director
Previous winners of the Lino Grand
Prize include Manoro by Brillante Mendoza (2006), Autohystoria
by Raya Martin, Imburnal by Sherad Anthony Sanchez (2008),
Anacbanua by Christopher Gozum (2009), and Di Natatapos ang
Gabi by Ato Bautista (2010). Most of these works went on to win
more awards here and abroad.
Cinemanila
2011 Announces Finalists for its International & Southeast Asian
Competitions
The
2011 Cinemanila International Film Festival recently released the
list of finalists for its International & Southeast Asian (SEA)
Competitions.
International
Films in Competition:
- Gangor (2010) by Italo Spinelli (Italy)
- If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (2010) by Florin Serban (Romania)
- Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
- Poetry (2010) by Chang-dong Lee (South Korea)
- Siglo ng Pagluluwal (Century of Birthing) (2011) by Lav Diaz (Philippines)
- Sun-Beaten Path (2011) by Sonthar Gyal (China)
- Toomelah (2011) by Ivan Sen (Australia)
Southeast
Asian Films in Competition:
- Boundary (2011) by Benito Bautista (Philippines)
- Eternity (2010) by Sivaroj Kongsakul (Thailand)
- The Mirror Never Lies (2011) by Kamila Andini (Indonesia)
- Water Hands (2011) by Vladimir Todorovic (Singapore)
- Golden Slumbers (2011) by Davy Chou (Cambodia)
The
following awards will be given in the International Competition:
Lino
Brocka Prize
Grand
Jury Prize
Best
Director
Best
Actor
Best
Actress
Previous
Lino Brocka Prize winners -- since Cinemanila’s inception in 1999
-- include Garin
Nugroho (Indonesia),
Colour of Paradise
by Majid Majidi (Iran), Firefly
Dreams by John
Williams (Japan), Atanarjuat
by Zacharias Kunuk (Canada), What
Time Is It There? by
Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan), Uzak
(Distant) by Nuri
Bilge Ceylan (Turkey), Vibrator
by Ryuichi Hiroki (Japan), The
President's Last Bang
by Im-Sang Soo (South Korea), Kubrador
by Jeffrey Jeturian (Philippines), The
Edge of Heaven by Fatih Akin
(Turkey), Hunger
by Steve McQueen, Sketches
of Kaitan City by
Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Japan).
In
the Southeast Asian Competition, a Best Film prize will be awarded.
Past awardees of this relatively new category -- launched in 2007 --
include Mukhsin
by Yasmin Ahmad (Malaysia), Confessional
by Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Dahis Antipuesto (Philippines), Talentime
by Yasmin Ahmad (Malaysia), and Ang
Damgo ni Eleuteria by
Remton Siega Zuasola (Philippines).
Shutter Star Ananda
Everingham Back in Cinemanila
Fans of Ananda Everingham, best known
for his lead role in the 2004 horror film Shutter, will be
delighted to learn that the Thai actor will be arriving on 11.11.11
to attend once more the Cinemanila International Film Festival. Last
year, Everingham was at the 2010 edition of Cinemanila for the
screening of Wisit Sasanatieng’s The Red Eagle (2010) in
which Everingham played a Thai superhero. This time, he is back in
support of his film Eternity (2010) -- directed by M.L.
Pundhevanop Dhewakul -- a story about a young man having an
adulterous affair with his uncle's wife.
Aside from Shutter, Everingham
also starred in 2007 in the romantic dramas Me...Myself, and
Bangkok Time. In 2008, he was cast in Nonzee Nimibutr’s
Queen of Langkasuka and in Sabaidee Luang Prabang, the
first Laotian commercial film shot since it adopted communism in
1975. Everingham’s mother is Laotian and his father is Australian.
Oldboy Director’s
iPhone Film Night Fishing to Screen at
Cinemanila 2011
The 2011 Cinemanila International Film
Festival will screen the 31-minute fantasy-horror iPhone film Night
Fishing (2011) by South Korean Park Chan-wook, famously known for
his The Vengeance Trilogy -- Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
(2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
(2005). Park, co-directing with his younger brother Park
Chan-kyong, shot the film entirely on the Apple iPhone 4. It was
financially supported by KT, South Korea's current exclusive
distributor of the iPhone, which supplied the duo with US$133,447.
Released in January 2011, Night
Fishing went on to win the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the
61st Berlin International Film Festival. It was then invited at the
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival because the
organizers “recognized the significance” that the film -- the
world's first iPhone film ever released in theaters -- held “as a
marketing campaign” for KT’s iPhone 4.
Night Fishing will be screened
at Cinemanila 2011 as part of the festival’s focus this year on
South Korean Cinema.
The 13th Cinemanila will be
held from November 11 to 17, 2011 at the Market! Market! Cinemas in
Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City. Around 80 international and
local films will be screened in a span of 7 days, from the current
toasts of the local indie scene to the award-winners and favorites of
prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Sundance,
and Pusan. The festival will also feature workshops, seminars, and
master classes. For more info, or jpegs for a release, please contact
cinemanila.press@gmail.com and cinemanila@gmail.com or go to
www.cinemanila.org.ph.
For updates, join the Cinemanila
International Film Festival Facebook Group at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/246306172084819/
and follow Cinemanila on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CinemanilaIFF
.
The 2011 Cinemanila International Film
Festival is presented by the City of Taguig under the leadership of
Mayor Lani Cayetano, and the Cinemanila International Film Festival
Foundation, together with Market! Market! Cinemas, in cooperation
with Fully Booked, Bonifacio Global City, Cinema One, Manila
Bulletin, Business World, TBWA\Mangada Santiago Puno, Outpost Visual
Frontier, Solid Video Corporation, Scenema Concepts International,
Click the City, Pep.ph, Spot.ph, Web Philippines, Goethe Institut,
the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the Embassy of
Italy in Manila, the Australian Embassy, the Film Development Council
of the Philippines, Jeonju Film Festival, Asiatica Mediale, and
Murray n D’Vine.
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