JUST A THOUGHT: If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow. – Beyonce
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ENGLISH TITLES ONLY: Women of the Weeping River. Birdshot.1-2-3. Smaller and Smaller Circles. The Mythology Class.
Note that these titles aren’t coming from either Colombia Pictures, United International Pictures, or any Hollywood bigshot.
They are new films produced and directed by Filipinos under the banner of TBA Studios, which held its grand launch sometime back at EDSA Shangri-La Hotel.
It’s safe to concur that with this flood of foreign-sounding films, English titles have become the trend, the rule more than the exception, in Filipino filmmaking. Movie bookers claim this is being done in an effort to reach a wider, international market.
TBA Studios executive producers E.A. Rocha and Fernando Ortigas announced that the company has formed a strategic partnership with Globe Telecom, with whom it is co-producing a big-budget historical film, Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral.
Goyo, topbilled by Paulo Avelino, is about the only film in the TBA line-up carrying a Tagalog title.
Globe is also providing marketing support to TBA-produced films.
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HOME OF QUALITY FILMS: TBA Studios is the independent film company behind such acclaimed movies as the blockbuster “Heneral Luna”, the Urian-winning and MMFF best picture “Sunday Beauty Queen”, “I’m Drunk, I Love You”, and “Bliss.”
Some of the exciting film projects unveiled by TBA Studios include Carlo Obispo’s “1-2-3”, a gripping family drama, which opened last year’s Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and “Women of the Weeping River” which took home top prizes in the recently concluded 40th Gawad Urian Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Mindanaoan filmmaker Sheron Dayoc.
Another highly anticipated project is the chilling crime thriller “Smaller and Smaller Circles” directed by Raya Martin, based on the bestselling novel of F.H. Batacan.
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EXPANDING MOVIE PLATFORMS: TBA Studios also confirmed that the film adaptation of the popular graphic novel “The Mythology Class” is already in development. Its creator Arnold Arre and director Tarog who would helm the project made the official announcement.
Aside from producing quality films the company continues to expand its reach and scope by creating various distribution platforms that will promote and enrich the local movie industry. In 2016, the company launched Cinetropa, a Filipino-movie streaming site created exclusively to give Filipino films more exposure on a global scale, and Cinema ’76, a micro-cinema dedicated solely to regularly playing independent films.
With the success of Cinema ’76 (located on Luna Mencias St., San Juan), Vincent Nebrida, TBA President and Cinema ’76 co-founder, announced that the popular micro-cinema will open a new and bigger branch very soon.
