WITH the continued renovation of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) main building, which reportedly will be finished early 2026, the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival has become 90-percent mall-based, and might continue being so until next year.
On its 20th year, Cinemalaya opened on August 2, Friday, with its main venue at Ayala Malls Manila Bay in Parañaque City.
In 2023, the main venue was the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), in its meeting rooms and halls. Since those were not meant for film viewing but conferences, the Cinemalaya organizers decided to use real cinemas this time.
Audiences mostly complained of having difficulties seeing only half of the screen, especially the subtitles, because seats were arranged like in conferences and seminars. They saw mostly heads of people in front of them, not the actual movie.
More so, since PICC is regular venue for graduation ceremonies, the foot traffic can be confusing. Some Cinemalaya viewers mistakenly lined up for halls meant for graduation rites, causing slight disturbances.
Plenty of choices to eat in between screenings, says festival director Chris Millado
We asked Chris Millado, festival director of Cinemalaya for nearly a decade, how does it feel to be fully mall-based now?
“I still miss the film palace feel of the CCP main theater,” Millado told The Diarist. “To see your cinematic work move from the cramped editing studio to a large screen before 2000 audiences seated on the orchestra, boxes and balconies is something else.
“It’s always an astounding moment for filmmakers to stand on that stage on premiere night to see their audiences eagerly waiting for their stories to light up the screen,” he added.
Then again, there are advantages. “At the mall, there’s plenty of cafes and restaurants. Audiences have the added option of filling their time in between screenings and forums,” Millado said.
“There’s also the potential of broadening the reach to mass audiences beyond the loyal cineastes and industry players. I see this as some kind of rehearsal for a hybrid way of conducting the festival.”
And it seems Millado is enjoying the difference, as he sent to TheDiarist.ph some of his recent photos in the mall venues.
For Cinemalaya, Ayala Malls By The Bay allotted four venues: Cinema 2, Cinema 8, Cinema 9, and Cinema 10.
Satellite venues all over Metro Manila are also Ayala Malls to reach more audiences. There’s Trinoma (Cinema 1) and UP Town Center (Cinema 3) in Quezon City. There’s Greenbelt (Cinema 3) in Makati City and Market! Market! (Cinema 2) in Taguig City.
We say 90-percent mall-based, because there are still special screenings at the Metropolitan Theater in Arroceros, Manila.
Millado may not have mentioned it, but being mall-based also means transportation accessibility. At CCP and PICC, audiences were disappointed because the orange shuttles with affordable fares from Taft Avenue to CCP Complex and vice versa had yet to return. The routes were shut during the pandemic.
Millado, however, was proud to tell TheDiarist.ph about a Dipolog–Dapitan City-based filmmaker who’s competing in the short film section of Cinemalaya.
“His name is Rey Anthony Villaverde and his short film, his first, titled, Ambot Wa ko Kabalo Unsay i-Title Ani, won first prize in the local SineNorte film competition in Dapitan. It was a student project which surprisingly made it to Cinemalaya!” Millado said, stressing how diverse the selections were in the recent Cinemalaya festival.
Regulars also have gotten used to uncooperative weather. As they say, if it’s not the raining, it’s not Cinemalaya season.
Despite that, audiences flocked to theaters showing Cinemalaya films. On the third day of the festival, Sunday afternoon, filmmaker-playwright Dustin Celestino brought his family to Ayala Malls Manila Bay. He was surprised all four venues had sold-out screenings.
“The good news is, buhay na buhay ang local cinema sa panahong ‘to. Sold out lahat ng afternoon screenings,” he wrote on his Facebook. “The bad news is, because it’s sold out and no tickets available, we settled for watching Deadpool since we’re here already.
‘The bad news is, because it’s sold out and no tickets available, we settled for watching Deadpool since we’re here already,’ says filmmaker Dustin Celestino
“Ewan ko, pero ang sarap ng feeling na Marvel film na lang panonoorin namin kasi SOLD OUT ang Cinemalaya films. (I don’t know, but it’s a wonderful feeling we are watching a Marvel film because Cinemalaya films are sold out),” Celestino added.
But given it’s a weekend, the real test could be the weekday screenings, and not only at the main venue where gala shows are being held. If it’s a gala screening, chances are some actors and members of the artistic team will be there.
This writer experienced not a sold-out screening, but a jampacked theater on a Tuesday at noon. I watched Kip Oebanda’s Balota, which is topbilled by popular star Marian Rivera, at the UP Town Center. It was the 11 a.m. schedule, the first film for the day.
I got a front row seat because all the good seats were occupied. It may sound perfect if you’re watching a stage play but inside the cinema, it’s where the screen is so near, it’s like the actors are almost screaming in your face—and in a literal sense, much larger than life.
But it was okay, since I am near-sighted. I watched without using my glasses and it was like being in a home theater.
The festival’s closing film is the newly restored Bona by Lino Brocka, first released in 1980 and starring National Artist Nora Aunor
Nicanor Tiongson
Dolly de Leon
Nicola Marzano
Meanwhile, in an earlier statement, Cinemalaya announced that the Main Competition jury is composed of author-film critic-playwright Nicanor Tiongson, internationally acclaimed actress Dolly de Leon, Berlinale film curator Nicola Marzano, filmmaker Jerrold Tarog, and Dhaka International Film Festival founder-director Ahmed Muztaba Zamal.
Tiongson is professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines (UP) Film Institute of the College of Mass Communication (CMC), UP Diliman. He also served as vice president and artistic director of the CCP from 1986 to 1994. He served briefly as chair of the Movie And Television Review And Classification Board (MTRCB) in 2001. He is a founding member and former chair of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino. He co-founded the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival and served as its congress director for eight years.
De Leon won Best Supporting Actress at the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), FAMAS Awards, and Gawad Urian Awards for her performance in the 2022 movie Triangle of Sadness. She also won the North Dakota Film Society’s Best Supporting Actress award and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Best Supporting Performer award.
She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Swedish Guldbagge Awards and for two major awards: the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) and the Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress.
Marzano has been the head of the film department of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London for 10 years. Currently collaborating with the Rome Film Fest and Berlinale, he has served on the juries of prestigious festivals such as Sundance, the Venice Film Festival, London Film Festival, and Cinema du Reel.
Jerrold Tarog
Tarog is a multi-awarded director, editor, composer, and writer. His critically acclaimed works span various genres, including the political mockumentary Confessional, the indie romance Sana Dati, the psychological thriller Bliss, horror in the Shake, Rattle & Roll anthologies, and cultural phenomena Heneral Luna and Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral.
Zamal is a noted film society activist in Bangladesh. He is the president of Rainbow Film Society (a leading film society of the country). He is the founder and festival director of the Dhaka International Film Festival, the first ever private sector full length feature film festival in Bangladesh since 1992.
The jury members for the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award are producer Nina Kochelyaeva, producer and filmmaker Monster Jimenez, and filmmaker Jay Abello.
Kochelyaeva has a Ph.D. in History and a Laureate of the Russian Federation Governmental Award in education. She is also a producer and programmer of the Dhaka International Film Festival. She is author of more than 150 articles on cultural policy, art, and film history, published in Russian, English, Kazakh, and Korean languages. She has been a NETPAC member since 2021.
Jimenez is a producer, filmmaker, mentor, and documentary advocate. She is the managing director of This Side Up, a media company based in Manila. She is a co-founder of the Filipino Documentary Society, which organized the biggest documentary fest in the Philippines. She directed a documentary entitled Kano: An American and His Harem, which won in the International Documentary Film Festival, Gawad Urian, and Cinemanila. Her producing credits include the Sundance-winning Leonor Will Never Die, Respeto, and Apocalypse Child.
Abello is an industry disciple, having worked on more than 10 TV soap operas and 25 films in the last 25 years. He has been part of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival as filmmaker in eight entry films, a lecturer and instructor for the Cinemalaya workshops, and member.
The festival’s closing film is the newly restored Bona. It was released in 1980 and due to neglect, the film negatives were in poor condition. Through the efforts of Prof. Jose B. Capino of the University of Illinois, the Paris-based Carlotta Films, Kani Releasing, and Cite de Memoire, Bona can now be enjoyed by a new generation of cineastes.
I remember a conversation I had with Vincent Paul-Boncour, co-founder and director of Carlotta Films, when he visited Manila last year for the launch of master filmmaker’s Mike de Leon’s Blu-ray boxset that features eight of his films. He told me back then he just got the go-signal to restore Bona and the license to distribute in Europe.
“To discover nowadays Filipino cinema, it’s fascinating,” he said. “I managed to meet many people involved and linked to this golden age of Filipino cinema of the 1970s and 1980s like Mike de Leon, Charo Santos, Nora Aunor, Doy Del Mundo, Ricky Lee, Feih Latak, and Raquel Villavicencio.”
He told us Carlotta Films had released other masterpieces by Brocka like Maynila, Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag, Insiang and Cain at Abel.
Now, Bona will be enjoyed again by the Filipino audience in an actual movie house, not on You Tube or any streaming platforms.
Directed by National Artist Lino Brocka and topbilled by National Artist Nora Aunor, Bona will be shown on August 10, Saturday, 8:30 pm, in all four movie houses at Ayala Malls Manila Bay.
The awards night will be held on Sunday, August 11, in the same venue. Follow Cinemalaya socials for schedules.
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