By Lito Zulueta
Inquirer
Last updated 01:11am (Mla time) 08/05/2007

MANILA, Philippines - Impressive is Cinemalaya's third year. From the competition entries to the exhibition movies, from ticket sales to congress participation, the film festival signals that Philippine independent cinema has definitely arrived.
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The dramatic progress of Filipino indie cinema is the silver lining to the worsening artistic bankruptcy of mainstream Philippine cinema, underscored by the shameless commercialization of the Metro Manila Film Festival. Cinemalaya, along with other festivals which have programs on digital features, such as Cinemaone and Cinemanila, has truly given impetus to independent cinema. For making Cinemalaya a beacon of hope, credit should go to the Cinemalaya Foundation and the festival organizers, and businessman Antonio O. Cojuangco, who provided the half-a-million-peso grants to jump-start the productions.