The City of Smiles is once again turning its lens toward homegrown talent.
Local officials and festival organizers officially kicked off the 3rd Bacolod Film Festival last August 3, inviting local filmmakers, writers, and artists to capture the city’s evolving identity on screen.
With the theme “Pag-angot: Celebrating Heritage, Shaping Our Future,” this year’s competition challenges filmmakers to bridge history and modern storytelling.
Led by Mayor Greg Gasataya, Councilor Em Ang, and Festival Director Tanya Lopez, the initiative frames cinema as a living archive. Festival organizers emphasize the importance of capturing its heritage before landscape changes reshape the city’s physical and cultural footprint.
To qualify, participating teams must integrate three to five recognizable local heritage elements such as historical landmarks, regional traditions, local cuisine, community figures, or cultural festivals.
“Art is a documentation of our times. Looking back, there has been so much progress in Bacolod, with new buildings and places emerging while older ones slowly disappear. It is only fitting that through the Bacolod Film Festival, we document these changes and preserve them for future generations,” Lopez noted.
To ensure local creators have the resources needed to bring their vision to life, the city will select 8 to 10 finalist projects. Each chosen team will receive a ₱100,000 production grant (disbursed in two tranches) and hands-on technical mentoring, script consultations, and production workshops led by industry professionals.
Deadline of submission of entries is on August 21, 2026. Directors and at least 50% of the creative/technical crew should be registered voters and residents of Bacolod City. Original live-action short films must be shot primarily within Bacolod City.
The festival is part of a broader, long-term strategy to establish Bacolod as a regional powerhouse for the visual arts. Established under City Ordinance No. 1061, authored by Councilor Ang, the festival aims to build a sustainable pipeline for local directors, crew members, and screenwriters.
Complementing these efforts, the city recently unveiled The Studio at G-Hive, a modern multimedia facility outfitted with industry-grade equipment for local animators and digital creators, in Barangay Mansilingan.
The completed BFF short films will officially premiere during the main festival run scheduled from November 27 to 29 this year.
In addition, local cinema enthusiasts will also get a front-row seat to national talent, as the city is slated to host the first-ever official Metro Manila Film Festival Parade and Roadshow outside Metro Manila on December 11. —Seymour Sanchez
