Cinema of the Philippines

Cinema of the Philippines
No. of screens920 (2018)[1]
 • Per capita0.9 per 100,000 (2013)[1]
Main distributorsStar Cinema 27.1%
UIP 17.0%
Disney 16.1%[2]
Produced feature films (2013)[3]
Total53
Number of admissions (2014)[4]
Total78,300,000
 • Per capita0.8
Gross box office (2017)[4]
Total$218 million
Part of a series on the
Culture of the Philippines
Society
Arts and literature
Other
Symbols

Philippines portal

The Cinema of the Philippines (Filipino: Pelikulang Pilipino; Spanish: Cine Filipino) began with the introduction of the first moving pictures to the country on August 31, 1897, at the Salón de Pertierra in Manila. The following year, local scenes were shot on film for the first time by a Spaniard, Antonio Ramos, using the Lumiere Cinematograph.[5] While most early filmmakers and producers in the country were mostly wealthy enterprising foreigners and expatriates, on September 12, 1919, Dalagang Bukid (Country Maiden), a film based on a popular zarzuela, was the first movie made and shown by Filipino filmmaker José Nepomuceno.[6] Dubbed as the "Father of Philippine Cinema," his work marked the start of cinema as an art form in the Philippines.[7]

Even with the problems currently facing motion pictures around the world, films are still considered one of the popular forms of entertainment among the Filipino people, directly employing some 260,000 Filipinos and generating around ₱2 billion revenues annually.[8] Among its neighbors in Southeast Asia, Philippine cinema remains as the strongest in the Southeast Asian region with the majority of films made in the region came from the Philippines along with the film industries of Thailand and Indonesia.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines established a national film archive in October 2011.[9] Furthermore, their annually held Luna Awards honor the outstanding Filipino films as voted by their own peers. Meanwhile, the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino hands out the Gawad Urian Awards, which is well known due to its credible choices of winners.

  1. ^ a b "Cinema Infrastructure –Capacity". Screendaily. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  2. ^ "Share of Top 3 distributors (Excel)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  3. ^ "Feature Film Production – Method of Financing". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  4. ^ a b "Exhibition – Admissions & Gross Box Office (GBO)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  5. ^ "History of Philippine Cinema". sdfilipinocinema.org/. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  6. ^ "The Role of José Nepomuceno in the Philippine Society: What language did his silent film speaks?". Stockholm University Publications. Retrieved on January 6, 2011.
  7. ^ Armes, Roy (1987). Third World Film Making and the West. University of California Press. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-520-90801-7.
  8. ^ "2014 Philippines Yearly Box Office Results". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  9. ^ "Finally, a national film archive". inquirer.net. October 27, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2011.