Shameless plug.

Okay, here's the official invite. Heh heh...

I hope you guys are free this coming Friday, Matilda will be launching the music video Iyak Ni Maria on December 3 @ Freedom Bar.

(click here for a bigger image preview)

The video is directed by Sherad Sanchez (he, together with Myka Arnado, did this as a final project for film class under Quark). I've seen the vid and it's really good. It's one of the finalists for the .MOV film festival (see article below). I think he's also submitting this for the Rotterdam festival.

(Oh, and if you guys are going to the Rock Awards this Thursday, punta kayong maaga. Matilda will be playing at the pre-show at around 7pm. The event starts on time.) :-)

.MOV finalists revealed

The top 10 finalists for the Philippine shorts, Southeast Asian shorts, and SMART CUTS categories of the 2nd .MOV International Digital Film Festival were announced at a press conference held at Alliance Francaise last November 23.

The Philippine shorts finalists include BLOODBANK (Pam Miras), MARITESS VS. THE SUPERFRIENDS (Dino Ignacio), RED SAGA (Krista Dalena), BINALIW (Kristoffer Villarino), APPLE (Sherad Anthony Sanchez), TAWID GUTOM (John Torres), IYAK NI MARIA (Sherad Anthony Sanchez), FIESTA 2052 (Michael Rivero), EGG (Ramon del Prado), and BLIND BEAUTY (Melvin Calingo).

Making it to the SEA shorts category are CUT (Royston Tan), LOVE FOR DOGS (Woo Ming Jin), GOODBYE TO LOVE (James Lee), WOMAN OF THE COSMOS (Diffan Sina), SHELTER: THE CITY OF FORGETTING (b.thiam), LOST (Amir Muhammad), EXODUS (Sherman Ong), CROOK (Aaron Chung), OUT OF THE CLOSET (Chi Too), and SAMA ORIGE (Bryant Low).

The SMART CUTS entries which made the cut are BITIN SA PAGMAMAHAL (Victor Louie Villanueva), FOR LOVE OR MONEY (Christian Vallez), TAP (Gabby Alcazaren), PUTEK (Ramon del Prado and Tey Clamor), DJEMBE (Emmanuel Cogama, Jake Ofrasio, and Audrey Silo), THE DIET (Gabby Alcazaren), SIGE YOSI PA (Titam Rebueno and Ramon del Prado), MOCHI (RICE CAKE) (Elmina Rayah Dizon), PINTUAN (Richard Legaspi), PISO (Kristoffer Villarino), TOILET DREAMS (Jules Katanyag), and BAGUIOMORPHOSIS (Rogerson Dennis Fernandez).

The pre-selection jury members for the Philippine and SEA shorts are French Embassy cultural attaché Martin Macalintal, NCCA Committee on Cinema member (independent sector) Teddy Co, writer/filmmaker Mes De Guzman, Cinemanila head of publicity and promotions Seymour Barros Sanchez, British Council assistant director for communications and marketing Susan Isorena-Arcega, Alliance Francaise cultural and press relations assistant Christine Sace, and Cebu marketing and events organizer Michael Sarthou. There are more than 150 submissions for the Philippine and SEA shorts categories combined.

Judging the SMART CUTS entries at the pre-selection also held at Alliance last November 20 are Co, De Guzman, Sanchez, Sarthou and SMART public affairs officers Novaleeh Clotario, Nora Imelda Wilwayco, and Rejoy Peñacerrada. A total of 62 entries made it to the deadline of the 60-second digital film competition organized by independent production company Filmless Films and sponsored by leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc.

All the finalists will be screened at .MOV to be held at SM City Cebu from March 2 to 8, 2005 and at SM Megamall from March 9 to 15, 2005. Another jury composed by foreign critics Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chris Fujiwara, and Peggy Chao, among others, will determine the winners for each category.

For more information, please contact Chits Jimenez at 0917-8211093 or at info@movfest.com.

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Finally, after a series of short and long meetings, nakadaan ako sa Nakayama the other night! Didn't get to see the usual suspects, though (awww...), pero still, nakapag-tocilog ako after a long time. My barkada and I didn't get to stay for long, they wanted to test their skills at billiards after a bottle of red wine.

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I'm sooo swamped with work. Ngarag na talaga ako. I missed Marie's party last night. (So sorry!) Hayyy... I want these projects over and done with. I have a busy year to look forward to (sana maraming raket, at, uhm, kasi elected officer na ako ng Ang I.n.K., and we have lots of plans for the org.).

Ayun. In a nutshell.