QCinema 2025 takes on larger grants, larger audience
QCinema 2025 takes on larger grants, larger audience
Opening of QCinema International Film Festival 2024 | Photo from QCinema
QCinema International Film Festival (QCIFF) will close its application for six short film grants today, February 14, gearing up for the annual festival’s 13th edition this coming November.
Selected projects in the “script stage” will receive P500,000 production grants. QCinema started to accept submissions as early as January 23.
Last year’s QCShorts awarded P350,000 production grants for six Filipino filmmakers, making this year’s half-a-million-seed significantly larger. Around 400 applicants submitted their bids according to Jason Tan Liwag, head of QCShorts Film Programming.
“Part of [our work] is making sure that we're platforming new voices, not necessarily new filmmakers, not necessarily new producers, not necessarily just new stories. [It's] a statement also to give money to a longtime TV director, for example, who wants to try a crack at the short films,” Liwag said in an interview last December, shortly after QCinema 2024’s conclusion.
QCShorts International Film Festival 2024 marked his first year working with QCinema. With its “international expansion,” Liwag underscored the public’s increased interest from local and foreign audiences.
“[We] opened [QCShorts] to make the competition international essentially. So we have six other Southeast Asian short films that [competed] with our [six] grantees,” Liwag said.
Among the six grantees were Kukay Bautista Zinampan’s ‘Rampage! (O ang Parada)’ and Gilb Baldoza’s ‘Kinakausap ni Celso ang Diyos.’ Berlin-based, Vietnamese filmmaker Hồng Anh Nguyễn’s ‘Saigon Kiss’ and Mickey Lai’s Malay-Chinese short ‘WAShhh’ were among the showcased Southeast Asian films.
“‘Yung audience isn't necessarily just the local audience. It's not just confined to people within Quezon City. Obviously, you're catering to a larger demographic of Filipino filmmakers. We have applicants, for example, in the QCShorts [grant] from Filipinos from outside of the country. This is a very, very important thing ‘rin kasi it goes to show na, yes, international nga ‘yung grant structure and international ‘yung audience.”
Funding
Quezon City Film Commission (QCFC) post for QCinema | Photo from QCFC.
As one of Quezon City’s annual tourism projects, 95% of QCIFF’s funding comes from the local government including the grants it awards towards filmmakers.
Liwag said that the Office of the City Mayor was able to get additional money for marketing and distribution for QCShorts 2024. “[They’re] involved in the making [of] the grants happen. But to the extent of what artistically is greenlit or not, we're pretty much independent as a festival.”
Incumbent Mayor Joy Belmonte, also sitting as the city’s Film Commission chairperson, expressed the impact of QCIFF.
In an exclusive interview during the QCinema 2024’s run, Belmonte echoed QCinema’s importance, “Naniniwala [ako] na dapat bigyan [ng] boses ang mga bago natin[g] mga movie makers at bigyan sila ng mga pagtakataon na gawin ‘yung kanilang dream film, [to] impart their message that they would like without censorship or without needing to think about the commercial aspect.”
Growing public demand
Last year’s November 15 packed gala screening of Lost Sabungeros in Gateway Mall |Photo from QCinema.
Among the standouts of QCinema 2024 was the documentary, ‘Lost Sabungeros’. It drew public attention prior to its supposed premiere at another independent Filipino film festival. The docu-film was flagged because of “security concerns.”
QCinema 2024 Artistic Director, Ed Lejano, pointed out that documentaries were notable across their 11-section lineup with 22 short films and 55 full-length films.
“For the first time, meron kaming documentary, ‘Mistress Dispeller.’ we shone the spotlight on many outstanding documentaries aside from that, ‘yung ‘Lost Sabungeros,’ which was quite controversial [and] we were the first to show it as a world premiere. We have a lot of other documentaries in this program.”
Accommodating such a growing audience and increasing demand, Lejano said logistical troubles arose during the festival’s run. QCinema 2024 explored a beta version of an online ticketing system for the first time.
“It worked for other malls like Rockwell [Power Plant Mall] and Shangri-La [Plaza]. Kaso lang sa Gateway where we [had] our first week, including [Robinsons] Magnolia. May mga technical issues,” Lejano said.
QCinema was swift to address ticketing concerns, finding alternatives from the malls’ booking systems.
He shared that they have been working on a mobile application for Android and iOS users, “The idea is you can check all the details of the program on the app or [the] website and it can [directly launch] you the navigation system [and] direct you to the ticket selling portal.”
Lejano referred to this year’s QCinema 2025, “It's an ongoing effort for us to make [the festival experience] more seamless. We're constantly going in that direction.”
A previous version of this article was submitted to Journalism 102 (Research and Reporting the News) class under Instructor Janvic Mateo.
