It’s that time of the year when the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the cultural arm of the government, is calling for proposals for its competitive grants program. We will discuss the grants from the National Committee on Cinema (NCCinema) which, is one of the 19 national committees.

NCCinema is composed of film representatives from the regions, academe, archiving, exhibition, journalism, mainstream and independent sectors, animation, and indigenous cultural communities. The committee’s vision is to create a “dynamic Philippine cinema that is creative and responsible, reflecting the Filipino people’s culture, needs, values and, aspirations, both national and global.” The mission is to “harness all available resources toward the vision to benefit and uplift the Filipino cinema community.”

PLANNING IN SESSION The National Committee on Cinema (NCCinema) discusses grants that will go toward helping fund young filmmakers

Last month, we attended the NCCinema’s planning session at Luxent Hotel and saw the members in action drafting the competitive grants. And the result is the approved grants I am listing here.

Cinemas in the Regions
This is a film festival grant for organizers. There are five slots with an allotted budget of ₱350,000 each to provide financial support for film festival organizations that have been running for five years. The goal is to exhibit regional films, create talkbacks on regional cinemas, and encourage critical discussions on cinema.

Short Film Production
This is given as a seed grant of ₱100,000 each to 10 filmmakers who are producing short feature, documentary, experimental, and animated films. This is a welcome development, especially for young filmmakers in pursuit of dream projects.

Feature-Length Film Post-Production
This is a ₱500,000.00 grant given to five selected film productions, which are undergoing editing, sound design, color grading, subtitling, Digital Cinema Package (DCP) mastering, and other post-prod requirements.

Capacity Building/Film Laboratories
This grant is intended to provide funding for the development of training and film labs in a specialized setting. These are for organizers who would train filmmakers with projects in development and work on advancing their creativity by giving labs to help improve the projects. There are three slots with an allotted budget of ₱300,000 each.

Film Festival Distribution
This grant’s objective is to support filmmakers so they can submit their films to recognized international film festivals. As we all know, there are entry fees for filmmakers to join an international filmfest so the grant can be used to fund the festival entry fees and finance DCP for exhibition. Three recipients will be granted ₱50,000 each.

Scholarship Grant Subsidy
This new grant was added by the NCCinema, which targets two Filipino scholars of postgraduate (MA or PhD) studies, who are enrolled in the field of cinema. This assistance can be in the form of transportation (airfare) expenses or tuition that is within the said fund allocation worth ₱100,000.

MEET THE CREW The National Committee on Cinema is a team consisting of film representatives from various sectors that aims to benefit and uplift the Filipino cinema community

The NCCinema is comprised of Teddy Co, Mahar Sulayman L. Ibañez, Jay M. Rosas, Juliet Cuizon, Keith Barnard F. Deligero, Jose Antonio W. Garcia, Gerard Paul J. Elvina, Tito G. Valiente, Benjamin M. Marasigan, Dexter G. Macaraeg, and Katrina A. Tan.
We hope that stakeholders from the film industry take advantage of these grants to further develop and strengthen our national cinema. We also believe that grants are a privilege, not a right, so we hope that the future grantees take this into their hearts and work hard on their proposals. The deadline for submission of proposals is on Aug 31.
ncca.gov.ph