Stars and Crowns in One Spectacular Night: The Filipino Festival
A festival of firsts, a festival that celebrates the art, beauty, and talent of Filipinos: This is The Filipino Festival. Empire Philippines spearheaded the month-long festival that lasted the entire October 2023. As part of this celebration, The Filipino Festival Film Fest, a short-film competition for film students, was launched as a showcase event alongside other events that feature arts and craft, music, and fashion.
From 60 entries that were submitted for the competition, 10 short films made the cut as the film festival’s finalists. They were announced last September 29, 2023.
- A Confession
- Ang Pagliligtas Sa Dalagang Bukid
- Golden Hour
- Live Streaming: Binge-Watcher
- See You, George!
- S’ya
- Tara? Takbo!
- Taymsa (One Moment)
- Tay, Padala
- To Ken With Love
To kick off the film festival, a red carpet gala was held last October 18, 2023 at Ortigas Cinema 2, Estancia at Capitol Commons, where the 10 short films were shown.
Hosted by Ralph de Leon, the gala was attended by Empire Philippines’ executives; some of the films’ directors, cast, writers, and producers; The Miss Philippines 2023 candidates; Mister Pilipinas Worldwide 2023 candidates; and the film competition’s judges as follows: Benjamin Alves (ASEAN International Film Festival & Awards 2023 Best Supporting Actor nominee), Mary Liza Diño (former chairperson of the Film Development Council of the Philippines), Martin Mayuga (film director and producer), and Xion Lim (film director and producer).
To culminate the film festival, The Filipino Festival: The Finals will be held on October 24, 2023, at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, as “a celebration of the Philippines like no other”. An awards night and two pageant competitions are featured in the grand event. The winners of the Film Fest will be announced alongside the winners of the Music Fest and the Fashion Fest. Also, as the first coronation night in Philippine pageantry wherein male and female pageants will happen in one event, the winners of both The Miss Philippines 2023 and Mister Pilipinas Worldwide 2023 will be crowned.
Check out updates about The Filipino Festival via Facebook.
Andrew is a cinephile who does content creation on films and TV series. At times, he attends movie premieres, which is a dream he had always wanted. His most bizarre dream in life is to win an Academy Award, but for now, he’s happy to watch movies in cinemas all over the Philippines.
Some of his favorite movies include Inception, Top Gun: Maverick, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, On the Job, and Iti Mapukpukaw.