QCinema Project Market Hands Out $442K In Awards; ‘Daughters’, ‘Heaven Help Us’, ‘Mother Maybe’ Win Philippine Co-Pro Grants

Liz Shackleton
·3-min read

The Philippines’ QCinema Project Market (QPM) handed out $442,000 (PHP26M) in grants and co-production support at its closing ceremony on November 16.

Three projects from the Philippines received the QCinema Project Market Philippine Co-Production Grant, each valued at $ 34,000 (PHP2M) – Daughters Of The Sea, from Martika Ramirez Escobar; Heaven Help Us, directed by Eve Baswel, and Sonny Calvento’s Mother Maybe.

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The QCinema Project Market – Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant, worth $17,000 (PHP1M) was awarded to Myanmar-Indonesia co-production The Beer Girl In Yangon, directed by Sein Lyan Tun. In addition, co-production grants of $12,000 (PHP750,000) each were presented to Other People’s Dreams, directed by Singapore’s Daniel Hui, and The Passport, from Malaysia’s Ananth Subramaniam.

QPM’s industry partners also handed out several awards including Nathan Studios’ development grant of PHP250,000, which went to Secret Cries, while the Taiwan Creative Content Agency presented the $5,000 TAICCA Award to Ewa, the sole animation film among the 20 projects selected (see full list of QPM award winners below).

The second edition of QPM ran November 13-14, alongside the QCinema International Film Festival (November 8-17), which is now in its 12th year.

In the festival’s awards ceremony, held earlier in the week, Trương Minh Quý’s Viet And Nam won the top prize in the main competition, Asian Next Wave, while another Vietnamese filmmaker, Dương Diệu Linh, won the Grand Jury Prize for her debut feature, Don’t Cry Butterfly. Mistress Dispeller won best director for Elizabeth Lo, while best screenplay went to Neo Sora’s Happyend and the Artistic Achievement Award for Production Design was given to Marcus Cheng and Hsu Kuei-Ting for Pierce.

John Lloyd Cruz won best actor for Bor Ocampo’s Moneyslapper, which had its world premiere at the festival, and Indonesia’s Shenina Cinnamonfor won best actress for Tale Of The Land.

The festival introduced two new competition sections this year – Toxic, by Lithuanian director SauléBliuvaité, won the New Horizons prize for Best First Film, while Cu Li Never Cries by Vietnam’s Pham Ngoc Lân won the New Horizons NETPAC Award for Best Asian First Film.

In the RainbowQC competition, best film went to Baby, from Brazil’s Marcelo Caetano, and Sebastian, from UK-Finnish director Mikko Mäkelä, while a special mention went to Japan’s Hiroshi Okuyama for My Sunshine.

QCinema Critics Lab participants awarded the QCinema Critics Lab Young Critics Prize to Here We Are by Chanasorn Chaikitiporn.

QPM 2024 FULL LIST OF WINNERS:

QPM PHILIPPINES CO-PRODUCTION GRANT [PHP2M]:
Daughters Of The Sea (Anak Alon)
Heaven Help Us (Bato Bato Sa Langit Ang Tamaan Magagalit)
Mother Maybe (Inahing Baka)

QPM SOUTHEAST ASIAN CO-PRODUCTION PRIZE [PHP1M & PHP750K]:
The Beer Girl In Yangon (Myanmar, Indonesia)
Other People’s Dreams (Singapore)
The Passport (Malaysia)

MOCHA CHAI AWARD [Valued up to $50,000]:
Angel De Dios (Philippines)

CMB DISCOVERY AWARD [PHP1M]:
Secret Cries (Philippines)
Please Bear With Me (Philippines)
Golden (Philippines)
Angel De Dios (Philippines)
Molder (Philippines)

CMB DISCOVERY AWARD [PHP500K each]:
My Neighbor The Gangster (Philippines)
The Returning (Philippines)
Heaven Help Us (Philippines)
Baradero (A Ship of Fools) (Philippines)
Ewa (Philippines)
Daughters Of The Sea (Philippines)
Hum (Philippines)
Mother Maybe (Philippines)

KONGCHAK STUDIO AWARD [Valued up to 10,000]:
Molder (Philippines)

CENTRAL DIGITAL LAB AWARD [Valued up to $10,000]:
The Returning (Philippines)
My Neighbor The Gangster (Philippines)

BAREBONES AWARD [Valued up to $14,000]:
Golden (Philippines)
Hum (Philippines)
Future Laobans (Myanmar)
I’ll Smile in September (Singapore, India)

T6XBB AWARD [Valued up to $14,000]:
The Beer Girl in Yangon (Myanmar, Indonesia)

TAICCA AWARD [$5,000]:
Ewa (Philippines)

NATHAN STUDIOS DEVELOPMENT GRANT [PHP 250,000]:
Lihim na Luha (Secret Cries)

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