Above the Clouds wins French film grant

MANILA, Philippines - Pepe Diokno’s Above the Clouds is advancing into production with financing from France’s World Cinema Support fund.

World Cinema Support invests an average of 100,000 euros in select films from around the world. Diokno’s film is one of just 11 projects selected in the latest commissioning round.

Above the Clouds is about a teenage boy who is orphaned in a flood, and is forced to live in Baguio, with a grandfather he has never known. They embark on a journey, up a wild, strange and mystical mountain, and together, overcome their grief at a peak above the clouds.

The project, while still at the script stage, has already received international recognition. In February, Above the Clouds won the 6,000 euro ARTE Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany. In 2011, it received a $10,000 grant from the Asian Cinema Fund of the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.

Above the Clouds is Diokno’s first movie in three years. His previous film, Engkwentro, won two awards at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, including the Lion of the Future-Luigi di Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film, and the Orizzonti Prize for new trends in cinema. In 2010, the UK’s Phaidon Press named Diokno one of the world’s “100 most exceptional emerging filmmakers,” in its anthology, Take 100: The Future of Film.

The film is co-produced by Diokno’s production company, Epicmedia and French outfit, Unlimited. Unlimited’s credits include the Cannes Palm D’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) and Cannes Camera D’Or awardee, The Forsaken Land (Vimukthi Jayasundara, 2005).

Attached to Above the Clouds are producers Bianca Balbuena (Engkwentro) and Philippe Avril (The Forsaken Land); cinematographer Carlo Mendoza (Bwakaw, Asiong Salonga, Rosario), and production designer Benjamin Padero (Captive and Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles).

World Cinema Support aims to promote international co-production with France. It is managed by the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and the Institut français, with the backing of the French government’s Ministry for Culture and Communication and Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

Filipino filmmakers interested in applying for support in France may get in touch with Martin Macalintal, Audiovisual Attaché at the French Embassy, via [email protected].