Brillante Mendoza

Received the Special Honorary Award at the Cinema One Originals in 2009.

You know The Philippines is the only country with eight local film festivals that gives grants to filmmakers. These local film festivals have also become an avenue to budding filmmakers to showcase their talents; eventually, exposing themselves for more projects. In addition, the spring of amateur and potential filmmakers through the democratization of filmmaking thanks to the advancement of technology creates a significant market for short films in various online platforms especially to younger generations with shorter attention span. With that, I can say that cinema in the Philippines is very much alive. It's just a matter of broadening and developing audiences for alternative cinema through various institutions. [Variety 2015]