“Early on, the Cinemalaya organizers made it clear that if a film qualifies at the Cannes Filmfest, it will be the exception since it is the premiere festival of the world and it’s every filmmaker’s dream to be included in the no. 1 festival in the world. All ‘Busong’ investors are proud that the film made it to Cannes. Alfred Vargas, whose company Alternative Vision Cinema’s premiere offering is ‘Busong”, is very happy and excited that the very first film he produced got in Cannes. He was supposed to join us in Cannes but alas his telenovela Mutya had extra shoots suddenly. So are the producers of Voyage Studios, who were the geniuses behind the post production and the Pisay graduates who are doctors in the US who were also co-producers. They all flew to Cannes and their experience is once in a lifetime. Nes Jardin of CCP was very proud when he announced to the Cinemalaya finalists the official selection of ‘Busong’ in one meeting. So was Robbie Tan (one of the first people I told about the selection) and Ms. Laurice Guillen (the Cannes Directors Fortnight President emailed Nes and Laurice about the selection, two weeks before the official announcement). I even approached Tony Boy Cojuangco (during the Cinemalaya meeting) to thank him and he was very happy about it as this is the first Cinemalaya film to get into Cannes.
The Philippine Government was in full support through the FDCP (Film Development Council of the Philippines), that helped finance the post production expenses needed to have a Digital Cinema Package and the expenses of cast and crew to fly to Cannes. Special thanks to chairman Briccio Santos who himself is an indie filmmaker. He was so proud and even attended the press screening of ‘Busong’ in Cannes. He witnessed the applause of the international press. It’s said it’s rare that people applaud in press screenings , but they did for ‘Busong’. We should be proud as Filipinos that we had a film in Cannes this year, unlike last year when we had none. To those who complain that the film as also shown in Paris, all films shown at the Cannes Directors Fortnight are required to be screened at Paris’ Forum des Images as part of the Cannes showcase. We’re now getting many other international festival invites but turned them all down until after the July Cinemalaya premiere of ‘Busong’.”
In Cinemalaya, “Busong” will be competing with the works of three other experienced directors, like “Bisperas” by Jeffrey Jeturian, “Patikul” by Joel Lamangan, and “Isda (Fable of the Fish”) by Adolf Alix Jr. One entry that qualified in this category but backed out is “Henerala” by Mario O’Hara.
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