With the collective recovery of our narratives, Pshaking Video Works (POV) successfully held the onsite film screening and awards night for its 19th edition, presented by UP Cinema. With the easing of restrictions related to the pandemic, the annual film festival competition has returned to Cine Adarna at the UPFI Film Center on March 24, 2023.
In its 19th year, POV opened the film competition for college and senior high school students to amplify the voice of young people, with the theme of POV XIX: Bagong S19lo: Atin ang Kwento, the annual interschool film competition allows the redemption of an alternative space for cinematic discourse.
This interschool video competition showcases narrative, documentary, and experimental films by Filipino students. Along with the onsite screening, POV XIX also brings short films by Filipino students online for free at Cinemata.
UP Cinema received over a hundred submitted films this year in these categories. However, only 12 of them became finalists with four entries in each category, most of them from Far Eastern University (FEU), De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde (DLSU-CSB), University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) , and Mapua University.
The jury watched and screened the finalist films, which included the documentary Adjani Arumpac, who worked on projects such as Nanay Mameng (2013) and Conchita (2018), KHAVN, who was awarded the Palanca Grand Prize for his novel “Antimarcos,” Director Keith Deligero who is the founder of the BINISAYA Film Festival in his own province of Cebu, Mao Fadul who is an award-winning production designer, musical scorer, sound designer, and audio producer Pepe Manikan, Two-time Gawad Urian Best Documentary Awardee Jewel Maranan, and last but not least, Mariah Reodica who is a writer, filmmaker, and musician who was awarded the 2018 Ateneo Art Awards Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism.
After the screening of the films, the POV team presented the awards to the finalists and awardees.
Kokuryo: The Untold Story of Bb. Diokno Manuel Dionisio’s Undas 2019 (2022) won the most awards, including Best Narrative, Best Production Design, and Best Screenplay. They were recognized as Piling Obrang Vidyo XIX (Best Film). Vahn Leinard Pascual’s While The Smell of the Carriages (2022) won Best Direction, Best Music/Original Score, and Best Cinemaster’s Choice. Bomba Magazine’s Pempem by Migs Ruallo won Best Editing, Best Performance, and Viewer’s Choice.
Other winners were Black Rice Canary Vein (2022) by Leonard Ian Billones, which won the Jury Prize, and Best Sound Design. Balde sa Brotsa (2022) by Josh Mutia won Best Documentary. Mind Body (2023) by Josh Van Ulric Field as Best Experimental Awardee. Self-Portrait (2022) by Daphnee Gail Ferrer won Best Cinematography. and the documentary The Secret Band of Thebes (2022), which was awarded a Special Citation for Animation.
This year’s Piling Obrang Vidyo was made possible through continuous collaboration with related institutions and organizations. POV XIX is co-presented by UP Diliman OICA and Cinemata, in cooperation with DAKILA, Active Vista, and Screen Asia.
Its organizational partners include UP Cinema Arts Society – UP CAST, PLM Independent Film, and Arts, FEU Film Society, 24 Frames – CIIT Film Organization, Film Aficionados Circle, Mapúa •MOVE, CINEMATA, UP CMC FST Council and Kalasag , with special thanks to UP Cineastes’ Studio, SineDulaang Agustino, and Silip Lente – Adamson University.
The media partners of the event are the Asian Film Festivals, Radyo Katipunan 87.9 FM, and BLOG-PH.com., and Radyo Katipunan 87.9 FM.
UP Cinema and the POV team hope to maintain the hybrid set-up of the festival next year; the online space is here to stay as we make cinema accessible beyond the campus cinema, Cine Adarna. The organization aims to continue providing space for youth films and easier film education. They believe that the film experience should be taken beyond the screen.
