A tale of two boys wins top prize in Nespresso film tilt
THE story of two boys and one slipper won the top prize in the fifth installment of the Nespresso Talents Vertical Film Competition. The film, Tsinelas, by Charlene Tupas was described by the jurors as “enlightening” and “open minded in [their] vision of the world.”
“I was impressed by the short films that were sent to Nespresso this year. All of them were stories of virtue, stories of hope and it was heartwarming [that] at the end of every story, it goes back to you being a human being, you being a Filipino, especially now,” filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone, one of the jurors of the competition, said in a Zoom press conference on July 9.
Director and writer Jose Javier Reyes, also a juror in the competition, noted that the film’s use of split screen while using vertical frames was innovative.
The other jurors for the festival were World Wide Fund for Nature & World Vision Ambassador and host Marc Nelson, Nespresso Asia Regional Business Development Manager Fabio de Gregorio, and Novateur Coffee Concepts Managing Director Patrick Pesengco. Novateur Coffee Concepts is the distributor of Nespresso in the Philippines.
The vertical film competition, first launched in 2016, challenged filmmakers around the world to “bring new angles to an old format with stories told through vertical short film,” according to its website.
This year’s theme is “Virtuous Circles” which is all about how one small good deed could create a ripple effect to benefit the world, with stories told through two to three-minute shorts.
Of the 83 entries submitted for the competition, Tsinelas, Cheat Day by Ramil Lantican, and My Brother by Massah Gonzales-Gamboa, won the top prize, second, and third places, respectively.
The other films that made it into the top 10 were Jemma by Chloe Villavelez, Ilaw by Andrei Fonseca, The Challenges of Doing Good by Gary Georgec, Sama-sama by Roman Marcus Abad, Imong Anihon Imong Gitanom by Breech Asher, Dreamers by Ej Gagui, and Padayon by Clanch Dayve Belleza.
Tsinelas is a day in the life of two boys from different backgrounds, each dealing with personal challenges, who meet and where one’s help has a great impact on the other’s life. Cheat Day follows a teacher who finds herself in a ruckus when her students execute a secret surprise, while My Brother narrates a boy’s admiration for his older brother, who continues to be his role model.
“I have been a thespian for a long time and this is my first time directing a picture… I haven’t been to film school so I committed myself to the world cinema and the endless possibilities of sculpting through time. Tsinelas is my biggest and the most difficult [challenge,]” Ms. Tupas said during the conference.
The winners of the Nespresso Talents Vertical Film Competition received €1,500 for the grand prize winner, while the second and third places received €1,000 and €500. All of them got a trophy and a Nespresso coffee machine and capsules. The grand prize winning film will be brought to the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and showcased alongside the winners from other countries.
The vertical film competition was held in more than 40 countries around the world, amassing works from 743 filmmakers. The Philippines was the only Southeast Asian country to join the competition. Some of the other countries which held their own competitions were Mexico, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Romania, Mainland China, Russia, and Belgium.
“If there is any takeaway I have from the experience of judging all these films is the fact that the Filipino’s talent for filmmaking is just so wide and at the same time it was so deep. It is so refreshing to see all these fresh voices, going from students on to professionals, competing with the challenge of doing a vertical film and at the same time exploring a theme and interpreting it in a manner which is both personal and hopefully universal,” Mr. Reyes said, before adding that seeing the possibility that the entrants to the competition will be inheriting the tradition of Filipino filmmaking makes him feel that “we will be great and even greater hands.” — Zsarlene B. Chua
