Film students clinch awards at Sinulog 2010

Students and graduates from the International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT) won nine out of twenty-two awards at the recent Sinulog Short Film and Documentary Competition. The winning entries include Faces of Sinulog, Taxi Driver and Pagtuo (Faith) by Steve Eraña and Mickey Macachor, Mikio Makino Jr. and Janice Villarosa respectively.

The competition was held in conjunction with the Sinulog@30 2010 Festival in Cebu City, and the award ceremony took place at the SM Cinema 1 on 30 January 2010.

Bagging the most number of awards by a single submission was Steve Eraña and Mickey Macachor’s video documentary entitled Faces of Sinulog, a seven-minute long historic view of Sinulog from two different perspectives, narrated by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Fr. Carmel Diola from the Archdiocese of Cebu. The top spot for most awards is also shared with the short film Kurtina nga Pula.

In the Video Documentary category, all eight entries were nominated for the Best Video Documentary award, in which ‘Faces of Sinulog’ emerged tops. The documentary was further awarded best story, best in production design, best narration, best in sound engineering and musical scoring, while Eraña and Macachor were both presented with best director, amounting to six out of ten awards in the Documentary category.

“Our training in filmmaking taught us to avoid common pitfalls, as well as cut down the time needed for unnecessary editing through our shooting techniques, said Eraña.

Macachor, a recent graduate with a ‘Technical Achievement Award’ from IAFT under his belt added: “Formal training grounded us in the foundation for filmmaking, and that enabled us to explore and develop our own individual style.”

Commenting on their award for sound engineering, Macahor elaborated: “We have been taught on the critical importance of dialogue. With that constantly at the back of our minds, we made certain that our dialogue was crisp and intelligible, right from source through to output.”

Post-production took place on-campus, which not only provided the duo with the necessary state-of-art facilities, but also creative inputs and criticisms of mentors and peers that contributed to their success.

The annual competition saw a total of eleven entries in the Short Film category, out of which eight were nominated for the Best Short Film award. ‘Taxi Driver’ achieved the runner-up position for Best Film, and was also awarded Best Actor. Producer Mikio Makino Jr. is a recent graduate of IAFT, and was also a recipient of the ‘Technical Achievement Award’ upon graduation.

In the acting categories, Chuck Luat bested two other nominees for Best Actor in ‘Taxi Driver’, while Janice Villarosa’s stellar performance as the distraught mother of a boy with leukemia in ‘Pagtuo (Faith)’ earned her Best Actress award, beating three other nominees.

“I feel that one of the most important aspects of acting is learning how to approach a character or a script in various possible ways,” said Luat, who made his short film debut as a taxi driver who makes a turnaround after heading astray. “At IAFT, we are exposed to a multi-cultural environment with varying points of view and reactions to any given event. Coupled with good guidance from our mentors, my confidence has grown alongside my acting skills.”

“The theme of our film is something that’s very close to my heart, and I began to embody my character immediately after we developed her,” said Villarosa, who also directed the short film she played in. “Apart from being armed with the know-how, the discipline and focus that has been instilled in film school really paid off, as we juggled our time between shoots, post-production and our school workload,” the American-Filipino student added.

“We are grateful for the knowledge, support and nurturing that the mentors have showered us with,” Villarosa added. “We are honored for this recognition, and I now hope for the opportunity to showcase this short film to a wider audience beyond the shores of Cebu and the Philippines.”

The team behind ‘Pagtuo (Faith)’ has plans to continue editing the short film for participation in other film festivals.

“We are delighted with our students and graduates’ achievements at the competition” said Keith Sensing, Executive Director of IAFT. “This will indeed be a milestone for them, and we wish them the best as they continue on to compete at other international festivals.”

Last year’s competition saw two students Peter Ian Mancao and Angelo Agojo toppling the competition with their short film entitled ‘The Portrait’. Besides coming out tops for Best Short Film, it also drew the awards for best screenplay, cinematography, director, editing, actor and child performer, totaling seven out of the thirteen awards in the Short Film category. Mancao and Agojo have since graduated from IAFT, and have moved on to the production of local and international commercials.

Villarosa is currently undergoing her Diploma Program in Filmmaking at IAFT, while Eraña, Macachor and Makino recently graduated in the same category.Luat is currently an undergraduate at the school’s diploma program for acting.