Archbishop ups prizes of short film festival for Ina

By Juan Escandor Jr. NAGA CITY---Describing the 4th Peñafrancia Short Film Festival as “efficient agent of change and edifying,” Archbishop Rolando Tria Tirona raised the cash prizes for the winners “to draw more people” into the competition. During the launching of the short film festival on March 23, Rev. Tria Tirona pledged to add P10,000 more for the Best Picture prize and P5,000 more for the Second and Third Best Picture prizes. Originally, the winners, who made the cut after the deadline of entry submission on August 15, 2017, will receive cash prizes of P50,000 with trophy for the Best Picture; P25,000 and trophy for Second Best Picture; and P15,000 for the Third Best Picture. The Archdiocese of Caceres in partnership with the Department of Education, the City Government of Naga, the Bicol Association of Catholic Schools (BACS) in Libmanan and the Caceres Commission on Communications (CCCom) launched Thursday (March 23) the fourth Peñafrancia Short Film Festival 2017 as part of the preparation of the annual regional religious fiesta in September. But unlike the three previous short film festivals in honor of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia or Ina, the Bicol patroness, which tapped the talents of amateur filmmakers, the organizers this year wanted to showcase the talents of students. Student filmmakers to qualify in the festival must be at Grade 7 to Grade 12 and studying in any school in the Bicol region. But the organizers will only accept one entry in each school with all the members of the production team officially enrolled for the first semester of school year 2017-2018. Also, the actors in the film must be enrolled, with the exception of roles of elderly, and the mentor or coach of the production team is required to be officially employed in the participating school. To be listed among the official entries in the short film festival, the organizers require the submission of filled-up registration form and letter of intent and payment of P1,000 registration fee on or before June 20, 2017. Entries that had been featured in local and national competitions, uploaded in the social media and other platforms are disqualified and only original creations sans violation of copyright laws are to be accepted. The past three short film festivals in honor of Ina gave top recognition to the short films created by Ronald Rebutica (Sakay, 2013), Jordan de la Cruz (Nawawara, 2014) and Aljanmar Rebeta (Laboy, 2015). Occiano said all the three top filmmakers in the previous three short film festivals are now into indie filmmaking. With the theme “Bridging Communities Through Christian Values and Ina” which student filmmakers to interpret it in a film not shorter than 10 minutes but not longer than 20 minutes in length, this year’s festival aims “to bring the pulpit to the cinema,” according to Fr. Louie Occiano, CCCom head. Also, the short film festival opens opportunity for student filmmakers to bring out their talents in promoting the devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia through their creations and reach out to the young generation and devotees wherever they may be, Occiano added. The entries of the short film festival will be judged by a panel of professional filmmakers, documentarians and selected staff from CCCom. According to the rules of the festival, the short film must “highlight the role and identity of every lay faithful and the essence of devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia or Ina.” Among the criteria of the content of the short film include the courageous portrayal of Christian values, promotion of deep faith in God and inclusion of Filipino or Bicolano culture and identity. The short film festival definitely disqualifies immoral, defamatory, obscene or scandalous contents or similar contents deemed unfit for the theme of the festival or Christian values.