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Brillante Mendoza’s Tirador (Slingshot) was was awarded a Special Jury Award (tie with the Russian film Kremen) in the 7th Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco last Saturday, December 15.

Direk Dante called me last Saturday around 4 PM (Toronto time) and gave me the good news. The award was presented to him by Academy Award winner Milos Forman who was the head of the jury.Sugisball from Estonia won the Best Film award while entries from South Korea and Netherlands won the Best Actress and Actor awards respectively.

The members of the jury were Hamid Benani (director, producer and writer), John Hurt (actor), Shekhar Kapur (director and actor), Pavel Lounguine (director, screenwriter and producer), Aissa Maiga (actress), Claude Millier (director and writer), Parker Posey (actress) and Aitana Sanchez-Gijon (actress).

Academy award nominee Shekhar Kapur of Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age approached direk Dante after giving his acceptance speech. He was surprised when direk Dante mentioned that Tirador was shot in 10 days and that the film was shot and projected in digital format.

Tirador stars Jiro Manio, Coco Martin, Kristofer King, Nathan Lopez, Harold Montano, Nico Taverna, Angela Ruiz, Benjie Filomeno, Arman Reyes with the special participation of Julio Diaz, Simon Ibarra and Jaclyn Jose. It was written by Ralston Joel Jover with Armando Lao as creative consultant. Jover also wrote Mendoza’s Manoro and Foster Child.

The other films in competition were:

- SUGISBALL (AUTUMN BALL) by Veiko Ounpuu, Estonia
- L’ENVERS DU MIROIR by Nadia Cherabi, Algeria
- FUNUKEDOMO, KANASHIMINO AI WO MISERO (FUNUKE SHOW SOME LOVE, YOU LOSERS!) by Daihachi Yoshida, Japan
- GRAND HOTEL by David Ondøièek, Czech Rebublic
- SAMIRA FI DAYAA (LES JARDINS DE SAMIRA) by Latif Lahlou, Morocco
- MIEHEN TYÖ (MAN’S JOB) by Aleksi Salmenperä, Finland
- KREMEN (THE HARD-HEARTED) by Alexey Mizgirev, Russia
- HONG SE KANG BAI YIN (THE RED AWN) by Cai Shangjun, China
- THE SAVAGES by Tamara Jenkins, USA
- KLOPKA (THE TRAP) by Srdan Golubovic, Serbia
- PARTES USADAS (USED PARTS) by Aarón Fernandez, Mexico
- GEOMEN TANGYI SONYEO OI (WITH THE GIRL OF BLACK SOIL) by Jeon Soo-il, South Korea
- WOLFSBERGEN by Nanouk Leopold, Netherlands

Tirador French distributor Didier Costet of Swift Distribution was very happy with the award. He took care of direk Dante during their stay in Marrakech. Swift is handling all French festivals and it is very likely that it will compete in Deauville Asia in France next year. Programmer Jerome Lasarre selected Tirador for Marrakech and he is also in charge of programming in Deauville.

After it’s world premiere in Toronto, Tirador was screened in Pusan and Dubai. Its first festival next year is in Berlin’s Forum section. It will compete next year in Indianapollis (best film gets North American distribution deal from Film Movement), Singapore and Granada, Spain (best film gets 50,000 Euros).

Direk Dante and I are now preparing for his next film, Serbis which won a script development funding from the Asian Cinema Fund at the Pusan International Film Festival last October.

Centerstage might co-produce it with two international productions. Swift Distribution has already expressed interest to co-produce Mendoza’s next feature film.

James Liu of Joint Entertainment in Taiwan is also interested. We already had a preliminary meeting with James during the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece last month.

Serbis is to be written by Boots Agbayani Pastor (Masahista, Kaleldo) with Armando Lao as creative consultant.

Tirador is Mendoza’s fifth film to win international recognition. His first feature Masahista won a Golden Leopard in the video section at the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and Interfaith Award in Brisbane, Australia in 2006.

Manoro (The Teacher) won the CinemAvvenir award in Torino, Italy in 2006 and also the Best Film and Director awards in the digital local section of Cinemanila.

Earlier this year, Kaleldo (Summer Heat) won the Netpac Award from Jeonju, Korea and gave Cherry Pie Picache a Best Actress award from Durban, South Africa last June.

Foster Child merited Picache another Best Actress award from New Delhi, a Special Jury award from Eurasia in Kazakhstan and the Prix dela Fiction from Paris Environmental Film Festival.

Foster Child is competing next year at Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain), Cinema Novo (Bruges, Belgium) and Durban international film festivals.

Centerstage productions is very grateful to FDCP chairperson Jacky Atienza and FDCP film festival committee head Christine Dayrit and executive director Lali Suzara for all the support that they have given for the films’ participation internationally.