Postscript to GE.Nobody and the Cinemanila Machinima Festival

Previous/related posts:
Pop Chart: Wonder Girls and Nobody, Robots and Granado Espada
Pop Chart: Granado Espada Does the Wonder Girls!
"GE.Nobody" Hits Cinemanila Machinima?!


Quick pic of the guest of honor at the screenings of the short films and music videos entered in the first Cinemanila Machinima Film Festival: yep, none other than critically acclaimed Philippine film director Tikoy Aguiluz.

In a brief speech, he said that next year they'd really go ahead and promote machinima as an integral new part of the Cinemanila Film Festival. Hopefully this means the beginning of machinima as a viable genre and art form in the local culture scene.

So I've just come back from the awards night of the first Cinemanila Machinima Film Festival, held at the Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street.

And after all the build-up, promotion, and what-not directed towards Darrick Regondola and his machinima mash-up of the Wonder Girls, "Nobody", and Granado Espada, it is my duty to report that he did not win any awards.

The night's honors went to "Shelf Life - Chapter One", "Shrink Wrapped", "Worship the Will", and "Wish For You". Incidentally, the two latter entries (both music videos) were made by Filipinos, and the directors were on hand to receive their awards.

Now, you might remember that there was supposed to be a sponsor award. On September 30, IP e-Games announced that it was going to sponsor a special award at this machinima film fest, with the stipulation that the machinima to be so honored had to be made from among the game titles that they were locally distributing. No such award was given out at the ceremony, however.

Here's apparently what happened: e-Games dropped the sponsorship like a hot potato. The folks at the film festival claimed that after receiving word that e-Games was going to do the sponsor thing, they went ahead with the paperwork for the award: Cinemanila put together a memorandum of agreement, put the e-Games logo on the website (it's still there as of the writing of this article), etc. etc. But the MOA was not returned, and there were apparently no further communications from e-Games.

Basically, as of 12 October (when the voting period for the entries began), the award had been withdrawn. No announcements were made regarding the withdrawal.

So much for that sponsorship and for that award.

Anyway, yay for Filipino makers and directors of machinima - may more people come to know of this exciting new art form locally, and may there be many more Pinoy machinima films to come.