Short PH animated film wins in Italy, vies at Animahenasyon
10 November 2021
A short animation written and directed by a De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Film student will next compete at Animahenasyon 15: The 2021 Philippine Animation Festival from November 12 to 14.
This after the animated film “CITSALP” by Jean A. Evangelista won the Porto Cesareo Film Festival Marine Protected Area Award or “the best audiovisual work dedicated to the sea” in Italy.
“CITSALP,” which tells about the negative effects of plastics in the world and the responsible consumption and production of plastics, is a collaboration among Evangelista and animators Ria Caluya, Shane Sitchon, Adrienne Jade, Aljean Respecia Uyan, Jlo Casa, and Ria Morales, editor Ayen Alvarez, sound designers John Patrick Perez and Dan Verzosa, production manager Arkin Tracy Tendilla, assistant directors Verzosa and Lawrence Soriano, and musical scorer Hannah Felix.
Evangelista, who received a cash prize of 700 euros from Porto Cesareo, is “very thankful for the award” to the organizers and to her team, Project CITSALP, which has been “the heart and soul of the film.”
“I never thought that this film would push through because I didn’t have any illustrators and animators before. In addition, I was highly depressed when this film was in production,” Evangelista revealed.
Porto Cesareo Film Festival artistic director Anna Seviroli shared that the selection committee viewed and evaluated “about 3,000 works from all over the world including shorts, mini shorts, documentaries from Italy, Mexico, India, Philippines, Spain, United Kingdom, Egypt, United States, Iran, and Spain.”
The first edition of the film festival was held as part of the Environmentalist Coordination pro Porto Cesareo’s “A-Mare I Giovani” project and co-financed by the Action and Cohesion Plan-Notice “Youth for the social ed. 2018” of the Department of Youth Policies-Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Municipality of Porto Cesareo.
Evangelista said that the Porto Cesareo award “simply inspires me to do more films about the environment, to help save mother nature.”
“And I want to let other young filmmakers be inspired to never stop dreaming. Even if there are hardships in life, you should never stop making films that touches people’s lives and hearts through filmmaking,” the student filmmaker added.
“CITSALP” was also selected to vie in different international animation and film festivals in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Greece, Indonesia, Poland, Romania, and the US, aside from Italy and the Philippines.
Animahenasyon 15, which is organized by the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc., aims to cultivate and showcase Filipino talent in animation. The festival is comprised of animated films in competition or Anikompetisyon and a three-day conference. To purchase tickets, visit their website at https://www.animationcouncil.org/animahenasyon.
“CITSALP” and 19 other finalists of Anikompetisyon will be shown online at the Animahenasyon Facebook page on Nov. 12 from 2:45 to 6:15 p.m. The Top 5 winners will each receive a trophy, certificate and 20,000 pesos in cash prize while the other finalists will each receive a certificate.
