RP film honored at Korean film festival

The Philippines gained another honor abroad after the film “Astig" received a special mention at the 14th Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea. Citing a report from the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Filipino filmmaker GB Sampedro’s “Astig" topped the “New Currents" category. “(‘Astig’ was cited for) its boldness in form and narration and for its courage to approach without concession the hard life of young Filipinos confronted to struggle to survive in an unequal society," the DFA said. The Philippines is the festival’s “country of honor" this year, the DFA added. The film, written by Jerry Gracio, competed with 11 others in the festival’s “New Currents" section, according to the DFA. “We are thrilled to have brought honor to our country from the PIFF. I’m particularly happy that we were able to highlight the best of indie and mainstream cinema and got recognized for it," supervising producer Noel Ferrer said. “Astig" is an episodic tale of four young men whose stories parallel and contrast with the landmarks and various images of Manila. It won for Sampedro the Best Director award at the 5th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival in July. “Astig" has been invited to the Asiatica Filmmediale in Rome to be held next month. Some 20 Filipino films were screened at the PIFF in the Retrospective section, six in exhibition and two in competition. At least 10,000 attended the awards ceremony at the Pusan IFF Pavilion. The Iraqi-Kurdish drama “Kick Off," by Shawkat Amin Korki, shared the New Currents Award with the South Korean film “I’m In Trouble," by So Sang-min. The award, given to first- and second-time film directors, also came with a cash prize of $30,000. Last year, two Filipino films won awards in their respective categories at the same prestigious fest. Milo Tolentino won the Sonje award for his short film “Andong" while Chris Martinez’s “100," which stars Mylene Dizon and has Eugene Domingo in the supporting role, won the KNN Movie (audience choice) award. “All three Pusan winning films were Cinemalaya entries funded by the Film Development Council of the Philippines," the DFA said. - GMANews.TV