ToFarm Film Festival launches songwriting contest

The Ryan Cayabyab Singers (RCS) has been in the music scene for nine years and its new members recently launched their album with “Sa Panaginip Lamang” as their first single.

 The seven new members of RCS underwent a series of auditions. When the seven were chosen (actually eight were chosen but one of them begged off after bagging an audition for a big company), Mr. Ryan Cayabyab didn’t bother to look for a replacement and had them begin the album recording.

 The current members of RCS are Poppet Bernadas, Kaye Tiuseco, Erwin Lasaca, Sherleen dela Cruz, Celine Fabie, VJ Caber and Anthony Castillo.

 Their album contains 12 cuts, some of them composed by Maestro Ryan himself while the others were composed by the RCS members themselves. The RCS members were not required by Mr. C to study music since what is foremost in Mr. C’s mind is to discover all-around performers. They should not only be good singers but can carry themselves well as performers.

 The members of the RCS are versatile. Name it, they can do it – classical, chorale music, ballad, R&B, boy band music, pop and soul. They can accept gigs individually as long as they inform Mr. C and their co-members beforehand so as not to interfere with possible singing engagements that RCS may have as a group. They are usually invited to perform in corporate shows.

 RCS will be appearing in several local shows before embarking on their US tour. Come October, they will headline concerts in New Jersey, San Francisco, Los Angeles, California and Honolulu.

***

After a successful staging of its first ToFarm Film Festival last July and after launching the Year 2 of ToFarm Film Festival just a few weeks ago, Dr. Milagros How of Universal Harvester, Inc. just launched the 1st ToFarm Songwriting Competition last Saturday at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel with the theme “Planting The Seeds of Change.” She said the aim of the festival is to discover new songwriters and if possible, singers as well.

 We admire the dedication and passion of Dr. How in giving the farmers and their families the attention that they deserve. We believe she is taking it to heart to help our farmers improve their lives. We wish her success in her desire to inspire our farmers to aspire in improving themselves. In doing so, this will also inspire other farmers and their families to dream big for a better life.

 Any kind of song genre can be submitted as an entry but it is hoped that it talks about agriculture, about the farmers and their aspirations. Dr. How hopes that this will also be a yearly event so that they can discover more talented composers and singers. Nine finalists will be chosen which will be announced on December 5. The grand finals of the 1st ToFarm Songwriting Competition will be held on February 6, 2017.

Those interested to submit entries may send it to ToFarm Secretariat, 10th floor, Harvester Corporate Center 158 P. Tuazon Blvd. Corner 7th Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City.

***

“Ang Babaeng Humayo” may not have won acting honors for its lead stars Charo Santos-Concio and John Lloyd Cruz but it came home with a bigger prize when it nabbed the Golden Lion Award for Best Picture at the Venice Film Festival. It was a proud moment for Philippine cinema as Lav Diaz took centerstage at Venice to accept the trophy. And then he called his two stars onstage to share with them the honor.

Now there is a clamor that “Ang Babaeng Humayo” be sent as the Philippine entry to the Foreign Language Film category of the Oscars. If we are to base the comment of a film critic, there is a huge awareness in the run-up to the Oscars when it comes to Lav because of the win of “Ang Babaeng Humayo” in Venice. Said critic also said that Ms. Charo could have won Best Actress if not for the rule that the winner of the Golden Lion could not win any other award.

But “Ang Babaeng Humayo” should have a local exhibition for at least a week until the end of September so it could be in the short list of films being considered by the Film Academy of the Philippines as a possible Oscar entry.

In case a foreign distributor picks up “Ang Babaeng Humayo” for theatrical release in the US, then it immediately becomes a contender whether or not the Philippines chooses it as its official entry. A US release also qualifies Ms. Charo and John Lloyd to vie for acting honors.

The past week was a good one for Philippine cinema. “Pamilya Ordinaryo,” starring Ronwaldo Martin (the brother of Coco Martin) and Hasmine Killip won the People’s Choice Award at the Venice Film Festival (a separate festival from the one where “Ang Babaeng Humayo” competed).

Likewise, Allen Dizon won as best actor sat the 13th Salento International Film Festival in Tricase, Italy for the movie “Iadya Mo Kami” (“Deliver Us”).