Star Cinema’s Malou Santos is 2013 CEO Excel awardee

MANILA, Philippines - Star Cinema managing director Ma- lou Santos was recently awarded for her outstanding communications mastery and brilliance in the 2013 Communica- tion Excellence in Organizations (CEO Excel) Awards given by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines.

As Star Cinema celebrates its 20th an- niversary, Santos was recognized and praised by the prestigious award-giving body for her strategic and effective use of communication in the mission of ABS- CBN’s movie arm to share stories of in- spiration and hope to all Filipinos.

“Communication is the heart and soul of our work,” said Santos. “Through songs, movies, shows and radio pro- grams, we are able to tell to the whole world the touching and uplifting stories of every Filipino.”

Under her leadership, Star Cinema became known as the No. 1 film studio in the country that brought the Philip- pine movie industry closer to the hearts of Filipinos through the production of top-caliber films. To date, Star Cinema has produced all the Top 10 highest grossing Filipino movies of all time — Sisterakas, It Takes A Man and A Woman, The Mistress, Praybeyt Benjamin and No Other Woman.

To support the independent movie industry in the country, Santos also launched and introduced the “maindie” (mainstream-indie) cinema brand Skylight Films to produce much edgier films like Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang and Bromance.

As ABS-CBN’s SVP for TV Drama, Santos is also the main person behind the success of Asia’s longest-running and award-winning drama anthology Maalaala

Mo Kaya and other world-class primetime dramas such as Pangako Sa’yo, Lobo, Mag- karibal, Maging Sino Ka Man and Immortal, which all became a major hit in other countries like Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Aside from Santos, IABC Philippines also awarded ABS-CBN’s head of Digi- tal Media Donald Lim with a CEO Excel Award for his successful leadership as the founding president of Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP). IMMAP is the leading associa- tion of digital marketing professionals in the country that Lim created to further promote and level up the industry in the age of high technology.