MMDA kicks off MMFF New Wave Student Section

MANILA, Philippines - Highlighting the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) this year and putting the limelight on future filmmakers, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis Tolentino led the launch of the MMFF New Wave Student Section last July 26 at the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde’s SDA Cinema in Manila.

The launch of the Section’s CinePhone and Student Short Film Competition was attended by various high school and college students around Metro Manila. Paul Soriano, director and head of the Student Section, conducted an open forum on the competitions as well. Also present were Digna Santiago, head of the MMFF New Wave Feature Film Section, members of the MMFF executive committee, as well as previous winners of last year’s Student Short Film Competition who shared their experiences.

The theme of CinePhone is “Restoring road courtesy among motorists and pedestrians.” “We believe in the potential of the youth. These are our new wave of artists and the future of the Philippine film industry. The MMFF will be here to guide and support them to be great artists someday,” said Tolentino, who is also overall chairman of MMFF.

Special guest was Marichu Vera-Perez Maceda, member of MMFF execom.

“We will make sure that these students’ creativity and talents will be recognized this year. We have a lot of prizes in store for the winners, including cash, post-production packages, cellphones, broadband kits, tickets to tourist spots in the Philippines, and most of all, filmmaking apprenticeships from one of the biggest film production companies in the country,” said direk Soriano.

The MMFF New Wave Student Section is composed of the first CinePhone, a cellphone movie-making contest which will have a winners for high school and college categories, and the Student Short Film Competition, now on its second year, which will be catering to college students nationwide. All the winners will be awarded in the MMFF Awards Night on Dec. 27.

It was also announced that a team by Soriano will hold a university caravan and go around several school campuses such as Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Intramuros and Unviersity of the Philippines Diliman to advocate filmmaking and encourage students to join the competitions.

The MMFF, an annual event mounted by MMDA, is organized primarily to help promote and enhance the preservation, growth and development of the local film industry and to extend financial assistance to the local movie industry through its beneficiaries representing various sectors of the industry.