PH film gets French funding

PEPE Diokno Inquirer photo

Work on Filipino filmmaker Pepe Diokno’s second film “Above the Clouds” could finally proceed after it received financing from France’s World Cinema Support fund.

The film was one of 11 projects selected. Though the exact amount of the grant has yet to be finalized, the average is 100,000 euros (about P5.2 million), Diokno explained.

Diokno also won the Arte prize (6,000 euros or about P312,000) at the Berlin fest and the Asian Cinema Fund grant (US$10,000 or about P410,000) at the Busan fest for “Above the Clouds,” the follow-up to his debut “Engkwentro” which won the Lion of the Future and Orizzonti Prize at the Venice fest in 2009.

World Cinema Support aims to promote international coproduction with France and is managed by the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and the Institut Francaise.

Filipino filmmakers who want to apply for funding may contact Martin Macalintal, audiovisual attaché at the French Embassy in Manila, via [email protected].

Bayani San Diego Jr.