News:

Viva awards PBO Digitales 2 winners, finalists

    Viva Communications, Inc. and Viva Foundation for the Arts recently gave recognition to the top three winners and four other finalists of the second Pinoy Box Office (PBO) Digitales Short Film Contest in awarding ceremonies held at the Viva office in Ortigas.

    Viva big bosses Tess Cruz and Vincent del Rosario awarded the certificate of recognition and P50,000 cash prize to Richard Legaspi, who won first prize for his short film entry "Ambulancia." Ivy Universe Tayag Baldoza received P30,000 second prize for "Walang Paraiso" while Seymour Barros Sanchez won P20,000 third prize for "Shorts." Also gracing the ceremony were Viva Supervising Producer Brenda Bayhon, Liaison Officer Gemma Cruz, and Marketing and Advertising Services Manager Stephen Charles Garcia.

    The three winning filmmakers previously represented the Philippines in international film festivals. Sanchez, whose other film "Lababo" (Kitchen Sink) won the grand prize of the first Digitales, competed at the 48th International Festival of Documentary and Short Film in Bilbao, Spain for the same short film. Baldoza, who took up filmmaking at the Mowelfund Film Institute, participated in the 2008 Berlinale Talent Campus in Germany, and was also selected for the Script Station, a mentorship program under Franz Rodenkirchen of the Berlin Script House. Her other short, "Bunot" (Husk), competed at the ninth Seoul International Film Festival Short Film Category in South Korea.

    Asian Film Academy fellow Legaspi, on the other hand, had "Ambulancia" competing at the fifth Naoussa International Short Film and Video Festival and 10th International Panorama of Independent Film and Video, both in Greece, and 32nd Open Air Filmfest Weiterstadt in Germany. It will also be exhibited at the Pyongyang International Film Festival in North Korea and had previous screenings at the second CineVita Film Festival, ninth Cinemanila, and AFA Fellows Night in Busan, South Korea aside from winning the best short narrative at the Quisumbing – Escandor Film Festival for Health.

    Cruz and del Rosario also presented the certificates of recognition to the other finalists: Ronald Espinosa Batallones for "Isa," Rosswil Hilario for "Kwidaw," and Patricia Lorraine Rosal for "Hiling." Another finalist, Noriel Jarito, who directed "OFW: Bagong Bayani o Baliw na Bayani," was then in Samar, thus failing to make it to the awards rites.

    For two years now, PBO, Viva's 24-hour movie and entertainment channel, has been airing the winners and finalists of the digital film competition, which provides an opportunity for all amateur and professional filmmakers to be shown on television and to win cash prizes at the same time. Viva is expected to launch the third Digitales this year.

    The judges for the short film competition were Lex Bonife and Jay Altarejos, the writer-director team behind Viva Films' "Lalake sa Parola," "Ang Lihim ni Antonio," and "Kambyo," Robert Quebral, director of Viva's "Sex Drive" and "Co-Ed Scandal," Gil Tejada, director of GMA 7's "Encantadia," "Bakekang," "Maging Akin Ka Lamang," and "La Vendetta," Keith Sicat, writer/director of independent film "Rigodon," and Benedict Mique, writer of "Till I Met You," "Co-Ed Scandal," and "Liberated."