Cinemalaya 2022 film entries will not be streamed online after possible risk of not being able to compete in international film festivals.
Cinemalaya Foundation Inc. and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) have decided to cancel the scheduled online screenings of 2022 entries, which were originally set to run this month, as announced on October 19.
The independent film festival had their competing films premiere in physical cinemas last August and the audience who missed them in the cinemas were originally given a chance to also stream the films via CCP’s Vimeo account from October 17 to 31.
But Cinemalaya and CCP canceled the virtual screening of the 2022 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival to allow the filmmakers to join various film festivals abroad.
“The decision came upon consultation with the filmmakers who have been preparing and looking forward to competing in various international film festivals,” the statement said.
According to the organizers, showing the movies online would mean risking the chance to join international events as the works may be disqualified if they were caught being shown online outside of the Cinemalaya festival proper.
Last August, the in-person screening marked the return of live audiences after two years of running the film festival virtually.
Cinemalaya 2022 featured 11 full-length films and 12 short features, with Carlo Obispo’s “The Baseball Player,” a film about a Moro child soldier aspiring to become an athlete, capturing the top award for Best Full-length Film in the awarding ceremonies at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo.
Other entries included "Blue Room," "12 Weeks," "Ginhawa," "Bakit ‘Di Mo Sabihin?," "Bula Sa Langit," "Angkas," "Batsoy," "Kaluskos," "Kargo," and "Retirada."
The widely successful run of the full-length and short films even extended for a week after its original run period as they were shown at the Cinema ’76 Film Society located in Anonas, Quezon City on August 24 until the 30th as additional showing dates.
Tags: #films, #independent, #festivals