PHILIPPINES, AUGUST 4, 2010 – Best Film awards, trafficking and admen. This seems to be the winning formula at the recently-concluded Cinemalaya 6 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the UP Film Institute. This year’s independent film festival gave advertising professionals a venue to show their dedication to the craft of film and to gain recognition for their work in independent productions.
DDB Executive Creative Director Lilit Reyes, who has handled Cinemalaya’s advertising campaign for the past two years, was part of this year’s screening committee alongside Lito Zulueta, the late Johnny Delgado, Bing Lao and Robbie Tan. He was called in to help filmmaker Sheron Dayoc in co-producing Halaw, a film on human trafficking in Mindanao.
“I didn’t know the director,” says Reyes. “I was really after the message of human trafficking. We’re targeting diplomatic embassies so that they can put to the fore this very timely issue.”
Reyes brought in the industry friends Soundesign, Underground Logic and Edit Cube to help out in the making of the film, which won Best Picture in the New Breed category. Halaw also won Best Director for Dayoc, Best Editing for Chuck Gutierrez of Voyage Studios and Lester Olayer of Edit Cube, and Best Actor for John Arcilla.
The Best Picture award in the Directors Showcase category went to veteran advertising director Mark Meily’s film on organ trafficking, Donor. The film also won Best Production Design for Aped Santos, as well as acting honors for Baron Geisler, Karla Pambid and Meryll Soriano. Reyes also makes a cameo in the film, as he has done in Meily’s previous films, as a kidney transplant doctor.
“I was very emotional when I won,” shares Meily. “We’re only five in the Directors’ Showcase but these five directors are all doing films that mean something to them, not studio-driven or for commercial release. It’s an honor to be with them.”
Both Donor and Halaw have been invited for screening at international film festivals.
