The 80th Venice International Film Festival starts on Aug. 30. It will take place in Venice Lido. The good news is Cross My Heart and Hope to Die by director Sam Manacsa is competing in the Orrizonti short films competition. This is a feat for our young Filipino filmmakers who are pushing themselves to enter the global film stage.
'Cross My Heart and Hope to Die' director Sam Manacsa
The aim of the festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, as entertainment, and as an industry in a spirit of freedom and dialogue.
The Orrizonti is dedicated to international films that show the latest “aesthetic and expressive trends” of debuting young film talents and lesser-known cinema.
Sam was the art director of Whether the Weather is Fine, Sakaling Maging Tayo, Never Tear Us Apart, The Write Moment, and Hello, Stranger.
Cross My Heart and Hope to Dieis an 18-minute short about “Mila who struggles as she remains unpaid at work and finds comfort in a love interest through his constant phone calls. But a promise of hope may also lead to tragedy and sad love songs.” It stars Jorrybell Agoto, Ann Janielle Candelaria, and Vincent Pajara.
Sam took part in the 2021 Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab in partnership with the Festival des 3 Continents’ Produire au Sud program, where Cross My Heart and Hope to Diewas developed. She is also an Asian Film Academy alumnus whose earlier short film, If People Such as We Cease to Exist (2016) was in competition in Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2017.
In recent years, we have seen this trend, a young filmmaker pitches a project and develops it in a film lab with foreign mentors, works on the project, and gets world premiere at decent international film festivals.
Sam, together with actress Jorrybell and producer Chad Cabigon, are attending the festival. The Chinese short film, Short Story by Lang Wu, will compete with Sam’s film.
Avid Liongoren, director of 'Zsazsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X'
Over at the Venice Gap-Financing Market, we are also happy to learn that animator Avid Liongoren got in with his project,Zsazsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X.
Avid is behind the popular animated films Saving Sally, which won 2017 Fantasporto Winner Special Jury Prize, and Hayop Ka!He is a product of the University of the Philippines, from kindergarten to college (Bachelor of Fine Arts).
The 10th edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market offers selected European and international projects with the opportunity to close their international financing through one-on-one meetings with international decision-makers.
Almost 280 project applications have been received from around the world and Zsazsa Zaturnnah vs the Amazonistas of Planet X, a co-production of the Philippines and France produced by Avid, Rocketsheep Studio, and Ghosts City Films, hopes to get funding for the 2024 release of the film.
The animated film is based on the graphic novel written by Carlo Vergara. It follows Ada, a salon owner who falls in love with Dodong. When a comet hits the earth, Ada becomes the superhero Zsazsa who battles the interplanetary Amazonistas.
Avid’s advocacy is to showcase Filipino animation talent to the world. The Philippines is known as a service provider of animation to different studios worldwide. There are only a few Philippine-produced animated works. The earliest we recall is Gerry Garcia’sAng Panday.
Fil-Cartoons owned by Hanna-Barbera produced The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, among others. Toei Animation was behind G.I. Joe, Transformers, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moonand Top Peg Animation and Creative Studio, Inc. has worked on 101 Dalmatians: The Series, The Legend of Tarzan, Hercules, and Kim Possible. All these studios were one time based in the Philippines hiring our talented local animators.
It is about time the world saw our own stories in the medium of animation and Avid is a step closer to that goal.
Asian presence will be seen at the Venice Competition with Evil Does Not Exist by Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The Orizzonti—Features section will screen City of Wind by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, a co-production of France, Mongolia, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, and Qatar, Shadow of Fire by Japanese Shinya Tsukamoto, and The Red Suitcase by Fidel Devkota, a production of Nepal Sri Lanka.
Indeed, the 80th Venice International Film Festival looks bright for Asian film productions.