CinePanalo 2025 Promises Bigger Grants, Bolder Stories
MANILA, Philippines — The second edition of Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival will be “bigger and bolder,” announced its festival director Chris Cahilig.
Last year, they gave P2.5 million to each filmmaker for the full-length category and P100,000 each to student filmmakers for the short film category. This year, they are handing out a P3 million grant each to seven directors, who will be selected for the full-length group and P150,000 each to 25 student filmmakers, who will make it to the short film section of the film festival.
The event will still continue its theme, “Mga Kwentong Panalo ng Buhay,” highlighting the Filipino spirit through uplifting and inspiring “panalo stories.” Only family-oriented, inspiring, and wholesome film concepts will be accepted as entries, according to the organizers. The genres include comedy, drama, romance, historical, sports and action, animation, musical, science fiction, adventure, and even documentary. However, the selection committee will automatically reject concepts in the horror, fantasy, sex, and suspense genres.
All interested filmmakers may still submit their entries until today for the full-length category and Aug. 15 for the student short film section.
The mechanics of the 2025 CinePanalo Film Festival are publicly available on the supermarket brand’s official social media accounts. They may then submit their official applications at https://forms.gle/wNUUQ62okYcyW5r37 or send inquiries to the [email protected].
The length of materials should be 15 to 20 minutes for short films and participating students should be campus-based, at least 15 years old, in terms of eligibility.
For the amateurs and professionals, they should be 18 years old and above and the materials should have a minimum of 90 minutes and a maximum of 120 minutes, in terms of length.
Cahilig noted that as of the presscon held on Tuesday at the Gateway Cineplex 18, Araneta City, they already received 121 entries for the full-length category and they are expecting more submissions until the deadline.
“Just to give you a little bit of a tease, (this is an) insanely crazy batch this year,” he noted. “You can see so many big names, so many exceptionally promising filmmakers submitting, (and) first-time filmmakers. So, we’re really hoping to have a really good batch of films this year.”
“This year, we are making it bigger and bolder,” he continued.
“While we are doing baby steps in growing the festival, ayaw kasi namin muna magpalaki, and then, it crashes. We’re strategic with every move that we do. But I think the reason why the festival is going to be bigger is because this is going to be, from the way I look at it, from the entries right now, reading the script, seeing the profiles of the filmmakers, and everything, this is such a showcase of the best of the best.
Veteran filmmakers, big-name actors
Award-wnning filmmakers, major production outfits, as well as big-name stars are among those poised to participate in the new edition of CinePanalo.
“Andaming naglabasang award-winning filmmakers, very brilliant filmmakers, even big production houses. Even prominent personalities coming into being part of the pitching process, (as well as) veteran directors, award-winning directors, documentarists, etc,” he said.
He added that big-name actors are also participating but he can’t divulge the names yet.
“Definitely from the looks of it, we see the best technical teams, we see really big-time producers coming in, we see big actors coming in, and we just started the festival last year,” he stated.
“And this is what’s happening already in CinePanalo. So we’re both happy and optimistic because of the reception that we get from filmmakers and we want to keep that level until the end.”
For the 2025 edition, the filmmakers will have more time to prepare their materials. They were given seven months to film as compared to three months in the previous edition.
The organizers will announce the 25 grant awardees for shorts on Sept. 26 and Aug. 15 for the Top 15 shortlists for full-length films and Aug. 24 for the announcement of winning pitches.
They will officially present all participating filmmakers on Jan. 24, 2025. The festival proper is slated for March 14 to 25, 2025 and the awards night is on March 19.
Kurt Soberano’s “Under a Piaya Moon,” which bagged the Best Picture award at the inaugural CinePanalo film festival, was screened at the Gateway cinema after the presscon.
The other entries from CinePanalo 2024 will also be competing and screened in film festivals abroad, including, Carlo Obispo’s “A Lab Story” in Jagran Film Festival 2024 under the International Feature, Competitive Section; Joel Ferrer’s “Road to Happy” also in Jagran Film Festival 2024 for Children Showcase, Non-Competitive Section; and Eugene Torres’ “One Day League: Dead Mother, Dead All” in Exposures Montreal Trans Film Festival.
Puregold senior marketing manager Ivy Piedad remarked, “When we first launched Puregold CinePanalo, we envisioned it to champion Filipino stories, advocate for student filmmakers by providing them with a platform for their dream short films, and elevate the local film scene.
“We saw the birth of promising talents, with several inspiring stories that came to life on the big screen. Fueled by last edition’s success, here we are once again!” continued Piedad. “Back and bigger than ever, ready to celebrate another year of incredible films and mark the second chapter of Puregold CinePanalo.”
Inspiring student filmmakers
The student filmmakers who won last year, Best Short Film (“Last Shift”) winner Ronjay Mendiola, Always Panalo Film awardee Jenevieve Adame (for “Smokey Journey”), Best Director (for “Kung Nag-aatubili”) winner Dizelle Masilungan, and regional filmmakers Marian Jayce Tiongzon (“May Kulay Rosas Ba Sa Bahaghari?”) and Joanah Demonteverde (“Kang Pagpuli Ko”), shared their experiences in the festival and how did it impact their academic standing.
Dizelle, who recently graduated summa cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas with Bachelor of Arts in Communication degree, said that he was conferred with Pope John Paul II Outstanding Achievement Award for partaking in the film festival.
“It’s very aligned with the path that I want to take, which is filmmaking,” declared Dizelle. “I think Puregold giving us grants allowed us to make films that we wanted. Parang hindi ko naisip na makakaapekto ba ‘to sa grades namin or not. Because at the end of the day, the point of why we are going to school is to learn and to make stories. So, we didn’t take into account what our grades would be but rather, what the output would be, what we could give to the audience who would watch our films.”
Jenevieve, who will soon graduate from STI College Cubao, recalled how her schoolmates would chat with her following her stint at CinePanalo. “They would send me scripts, asking me if I wanted to direct their stories. I told them that they could do it on their own. I encouraged them to make their own films because they can actually do it. I’ve read the stories that they sent me, sobrang pang-festival din. Ayoko naman agawin sa kanila yung pinaghirapan nilang stories.
“Also, a lot of people asked me how did I join (the festival). Many of them got inspired in a way after seeing one of their students na nakasali. It’s like it ignited the passion of my fellow classmates and schoolmates,” she added.
Marian from the University of the Philippines Visayas shared that her entry was written as part of a requirement for her screenwriting class when she was in her second year. “In my third year, kailangan ng parang upgrade, directing class. So, we will direct the script that we wrote in our second year.”
They were planning to produce the film for their production class but had second thoughts due to a lack of budget. They sent out solicitation letters to gather funds but it wasn’t enough until they submitted it as an entry to CinePanalo.
“And I feel like kung hindi kami nabigyan ng ganung kalaking grant, we wouldn’t have come up with a good film output. I later realized that to be able to pay my crew, actors, especially with younger actors, you have to make sure that they are well-taken care of, mapakain sila, budgeted yung pagpunta (on set), everything,” she said.
“So that budget really helped a lot para maging matiwasay din yung (filming). Even though it’s a school requirement, it became an inspiration or like it paved the way for me to unleash my passion.”
Also present at the presscon was “Road to Happy” actor VJ Mendoza.
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