The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
While prizewinning TV, movie and theater actress Shamaine Centenera Buencamino, award-winning Director of Photography Neil Daza, independent director and visual artist Raya Martin. Busan International Film Festival programmer Park Sungho and Malaysian producer and film curator Lorna Tee compose the jury of the competition films—full-length features and shorts—of the 19th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, a lineup of distinguished board of judges for the Network in the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) of Cinemalaya this year was identified by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc.
According to the CCP Corporate Communications, the following are the jurors for the NETPAC component of Cinemalaya 19:
Filmmaker Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo, filmmaker-critic Utpal Borpujari and Cinemalaya founding member Edward de los Santos Cabagnot.
Sigrid Andrea’s first feature-length film, “Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita” (2013), was selected at the Produire au Sud in France Nantes and has won Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Ensemble awards at the CineFilipino Film Festival. Her other multi-awarded feature films include: “Lorna” (2014), “Kita Kita” (2017), “Mr. & Mrs. Cruz” (2018) and “UnTrue” (2019).
Bernardo devotes herself to films that tackle human rights, women and political, social, and cultural issues. She is currently at work for “I’m Perfect” which was selected at the Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum (HAF).
A current NETPAC member, Utpal Borpujari has won India’s National Award for film criticism before switching to filmmaking. He is known for his award-winning fiction feature “Ishu” (2017), short fiction “Xogun” (2020) and documentaries “Mask Art of Majuli” (2022), “Memories of a Forgotten War” (2016), “Songs of the Blue Hills” (2013) and “Mayong: Myth/Reality” (2012), among others. His films have traveled to prestigious film festivals and have won awards and nominations at international and national film festivals. Borpujari has also served as a film festival organizer and curator in international and national film juries.
Ed Cabagnot is a founding member of Cinemalaya. A former division head of the CCP Media Arts Division, he is currently teaching at the University of the Philippines Diliman, De La Salle University (DLSU) and DLS–College of Saint Benilde. He was instrumental in organizing and managing Asia’s longest-running indie film and video competition, Gawad CCP Para Sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video which started in 1987. He juried for Pusan International Film Festival (2008), Berlinale’s Forum (2011), and Amsterdam’s IDFA International Documentary Festival (2013). He also served as an executive committee member of NCCA Committee on Cinema for nine years. He continues to support the growing Pinoy indie scene by conducting film festival management workshops nationwide, including the Montañosa Film Festival in Baguio City, NABIFILMEX in Compostela Valley, SalaMindanaw in General Santos City, and NCCA’s Cinema Rehiyon.Cinemalaya opens on August 4, with a red carpet, opening program and screening of Quark Henares’ “Marupok AF (Where Is the Lie).” It will run until August 13, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Tanghalang Ignacio B. Gimenez (CCP Blackbox Theater), and selected Ayala Malls Cinemas.