Official selection for ‘Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino’ revealed

The Film Development Council and its partners on Friday revealed the 12 films selected for Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP), a film festival scheduled to be held this August in celebration of Philippine cinema.

Editor Manet Dayrit, film critic Oggs Cruz, award-winning screenwriter Ricky Lee, actress Iza Calzado, cinematographer Lee Briones, and directors Erik Matti and Jose Javier Reyes make up the PPP selection committee.

Reyes in an video interview uploaded by the festival's Facebook page, he shared that PPP is a unifying festival.

"Dito patas ang laban," he declared, "Hindi kinilala ang distincion ng commercial films at ng independent films. They're just Filipino films."

Reyes additionally asserted that this festival is specifically for the Filipino audience, which he hopes appreciates the stories masterfully told in the following films:

100 TULA PARA KAY STELLA (Jason Paul Laxamana)
Fidel and his crushie Stella go through college together and we watch as he struggles to confess his feelings for her. 

ANG MANANANGGAL SA UNIT 23B (Prime Cruz)
"Ang Manananggal Sa Unit 23B" is a love story... but with a creature from Philippine folklore. Ryza Cenon of "Ika-6 Na Utos" plays the titular character who has to keep emotions at bay or risk transforming into a winged creature.

AWOL (Enzo Williams)
Lt. Abel Ibarra goes after the man who tried to kill him and his family.

BAR BOYS (Kip Oebanda)
Rocco Nacino, Enzo Pineda, Carlo Aquino and Kean Cipriano star as four law students and the sacrifices they make as they inch closer to their dream of passing the bar and becoming lawyers.

BIRDSHOT (Mikhail Red)
After unintentionally shooting a Philippine Eagle, Maya is forced to flee and hide in a forest — where violence and other threats lurk in the dark.

HAMOG (Ralston Jover)
Four kids try to survive the mean streets of Manila. Kapuso teen actress Therese "Teri" Malvar received Moscow International Film Festival Best Actress award for her performance in this film.

PAGLIPAY (Zig Dulay)
An Aeta crosses the river to go to town and find a wife. On the way he meets a woman who grew up in the city and the encounter creates a lasting impact.

PATAY NA SI HESUS (Victor Villanueva)
Cannes best actress Jaclyn Jose plays mother Iyay, who takes her kids on a road trip, traveling from Cebu to Dumaguete, to attend the funeral of her estranged husband.

PAUWI NA (Paolo Villaluna)
A sickly man, his nagging wife, a blind and pregnant woman, "Jesus Chirst", and a dog ride a pedicab out of Manila to find greener pastures in the province. "Pauwi Na (Pedicab)" was awarded Best Film at the Shanghai Film Festival.

SALVAGE (Sherad Anthony Sanchez)
A news crew reporting on alleged mythical creatures in Mindanao are chased by an armed groups into the forest.

STAR NA SI VAN DAMME STALLONE (Randolph Longjas)
A child with Down Syndrome dreams of being a star, prompting his struggling family to hustle some more and help turn his dreams into a reality.

TRIPTIKO (Miguel Franco Michelena)
A three-panel film that unearths the mysterious happenings in the lives of a playboy who runs out of luck, a model whose skin-deep curse reaches a boiling point, and a musician chasing after light-footed love

The official entries to Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino will be screened in all theaters nationwide from August 16 to 22.

A motorcade will be held on August 13, which will culminate in an all-day outdoor fiesta at Rizal Park, and an "Audience Choice Award" will be awarded on August 19. — AT, GMA News