Pamela Reyes wins indie film award

MANILA, Philippines - Pamela Reyes looks like your typical high schooler.But don’t let her youthful looks deceive you. A 2012 cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman College of Fine Arts, majoring in Visual Communications, Pamela already has numerous achievements tucked under her belt in the field of independent short films.

Just recently, her short film Unawa which she produced, wrote and directed, won the Best Feature Film and Best Director awards in the 2013 Indie Un-Film Awards 10th Annual Interschool Digital Film Competition organized by De La Salle University - Green Media Group. And more recently, the same film gave her the Best Editing award in the Loyola Film Circle of the Ateneo de Manila University-organized 14th Ateneo Video Open.

Unawa also competed in the Festival Internacional Dona i Cinema in Valencia, Spain; the Young Cinema category of the 14th CineManila International Film Festival; and exhibited for the Mise en Relief (Pointing Out) Section of the 10th Festival International Signes de Nuit in Paris, France.

She just finished another short film titled Ligaw, a film about a young couple’s love during a not-so-typical Philippine New Year’s Eve. Pam is also co-producing the first full-length feature film of multi-awarded young director Mikhail Red for the New Breed Category of the 2013 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. 

Her exposure to filmmaking started in 2010 with a short film titled Brownout starring Jiro Manio, Jairus Aquino and Basty Alcances which she produced, directed, co-wrote and edited to fulfill a course requirement. The 15-minute film was selected to be exhibited at the seventh Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

Her next film Debut was in 2011. Like her first film, Pam produced, directed, wrote and edited Debut and was also the cinematographer and production designer.

Debut, a film about child prostitution, was a finalist in the Short Feature Category of the seventh Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. Debut was also officially selected to compete in the professional category of the third CinePambata Film Festival and in the 2012 Pasinaya — CCP Open House Festival.

Her third film Unawa was actually Pamela’s college thesis. It was given a thesis grant by the UP College of Fine Arts.

Pam was also involved as behind-the-scenes photographer for Bangin, that was shown during the 2011 ANC News Channel’s Kinse.

A multi-talented artist, the 22-year-old lady also dabbles in photography and graphic design.

Pamela looks forward to making her very own full-length film and probably teach filmmaking or fine arts to college students. Still very young, she is well aware that the world is at her feet and the possibilities are endless.