UP Film Institute

25/09/2026

𝗪𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗼𝗼𝘂!

To accommodate the high volume of interest, we have opened 10 MORE SLOTS for each of our six on-site Palette & Perspective workshops.

Wed, November 11
W1 — Office Sketches: A Gentle Intro to Art (Facilitator: Daniel “Dansoy” Coquilla)
W2 — Flourish: A Floral Paper Quilling Workshop (Facilitator: Carina Samaniego)

Thu, November 12
W3 — Kwentong Kislap: Writing Stories in 300 Words or Less (Facilitator: Brian Spencer Reyes)
W4 — Pagkatha't Pakikibaka: Zine-Making Workshop (Facilitator: Gio Potes)

Fri, November 13
W5 — The Language of Light: Basic Photography Workshop (Facilitator: Lloyd Evangelista)
W6 — PABMATS!: Workshop on Basic Graphic Design (Facilitator: Aries Ferrer)

Register at bit.ly/PalettePerspectiveRegistration. We are accepting applications for this round only until Thursday, October 1.

All sessions are FREE and offered strictly on a first-come, first-served basis to current REPS and Administrative personnel (including JO, COS, UP Contractual, Non-UP Contractual) in UP Diliman and other UP constituent universities.

Follow us for more updates.

18/09/2026

UPFI Rough Cut is a new program of the UP Film Institute that provides a venue for substantive discussion of films in progress, where the conversation is aimed at contributing to the shaping of the work. We are proud to launch it with a screening and discussion of the current project of documentary filmmaker and UPFI lecturer Jewel Maranan.

Sept 22, 2026 Videotheque
By invitation only

17/09/2026

11/09/2026

Filmmaker and film historian Nicolas Deocampo will be honored with the Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi by Ateneo de Manila University. His distinguished body of work includes directing films such as Oliver (1983), Children of the Regime (1985), and Revolutions Happen Like Refrains in a Song (1987), as well as authoring books on the history of Philippine cinema. In 2023, he received the Premio Casa Asia for Culture and Society and has conducted film literacy lectures and workshops in the Philippines and abroad.

10/09/2026

𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐃

The Townhall Meeting scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed and will be moved to a later date during ACLE (Alternative Classroom Learning Experience).
Please wait for the official email containing further details

10/09/2026

The University of the Philippines Film Institute celebrates the conferment of the highest artistic recognition on Armando "Bing" Lao.

Armando "Bing" Lao's multifaceted career as a screenwriter, director, creative consultant, and mentor is a testament to his versatility and profound influence.

As a veteran filmmaker and scriptwriter, he successfully elevated conventional expectations in his genre screenplays, including komiks adaptations, comedies, thrillers, and dramas, contributing to a popular cinema that respects the writing of underclass characters and demands to be enjoyed and taken seriously at the same time. He created highly innovative and unforgettable works, such as his multicharacter narratives, pushing the craft of screenwriting into new territories.

As a mentor, he taught at the UP Film Institute, Mowelfund Film Institute, and the Asia Pacific Film Institute, and conducted his own workshops. At the turn of the century, when the film industry was facing a sharp decline, he led a younger generation of artists through a more independent path. He put the mundane lives and spaces of the most socially marginalized at the center of his definition of the cinematic, codified his influential "found story" narrative aesthetic that hewed close to documentary practice, and revitalized a moribund film realism, a formal tendency which has been important in the development of Philippine cinema.

10/09/2026

The University of the Philippines Film Institute celebrates the conferment of the highest artistic recognition on Dr. Nicanor Tiongson.

Dr. Nicanor Tiongson's pioneering works of gravity and magnitude have earned him the honor of National Artist for Literature. His singularity of vision as a scholar-artist and cultural administrator is evident in the interrelationship of his many interests and efforts.

His body of writing — playwriting, ethnography, criticism, polemics, pedagogy, historiography — is foundational to any understanding of Philippine theatre's traditions and evolution, and of its profound and enduring influence on literature, cinema, radio, and television. The same fastidiousness carried into his work on cinema and the other arts, where he authored, edited, or produced indispensable texts, monographs, and documentaries, including the two towering editions of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. Every work is anchored on the rigor of research, a keen interest in reviving cultural practices appreciated by the common tao, and the drive to revitalize artistic forms responsive to the changing times.

He steered institutions with the same exacting hand. He was professor and chair of the UP Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas. At the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), he served as artistic director from 1986 to 1994. He gave the UP College of Media and Communication (CMC) both its journal, Plaridel, and its award for outstanding Filipino media practitioners, the U.P. Gawad Plaridel. He chaired the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, which confers the Gawad Urian, and was among the founders of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. He served as Dean of the UP CMC, has taught at the UP Film Institute for decades, and is currently its Professor Emeritus.

He brought the principles he espoused as post-EDSA Vice President of the CCP to his life's work as an overarching vision — Filipinization rooted in historical formation and in the continuing need to foster national consciousness, democratization that respects human rights and resists any form of authoritarianism, and decentralization that recognizes the diversity and dignity of Filipino identities. They are principles the UP Film Institute continues to live by.

07/09/2026

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆

Selected participants for Palette & Perspective 2026 have been notified today. Please check your email for the official notice and further instructions to confirm your slot on or before Fri, 11 Sep 2026.

We received an overwhelming response from administrative personnel and REPS across the UP System, and we are deeply grateful for your enthusiastic support! Due to venue capacity and limited resources, we were unfortunately unable to accommodate all applications this year.

Thank you for your warm support, and we look forward to meeting you in November!

04/09/2026

Beyond the Screen: Film Appreciation and Criticism Workshop with Katrina Ross Tan in progress with six-Saturday sessions that began last August 15. From their ranks shall emerge future film critics advocating insightful critiques armed with tools for a sharpened analytical eye.

04/09/2026

𝐁𝐄𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐄: 𝐔𝐏𝐅𝐈 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋

The UP Film Institute invites all students to a Townhall Meeting on Friday, September 11, at the UPFI Film Studio.

The meeting will provide an open forum for dialogue between students and the Institute on matters concerning academics, student organizations, and other student-related concerns.

Students are encouraged to participate, raise their concerns, and share their insights as we work toward a more responsive and engaged UPFI student community.

Students who wish to participate are requested to register through the link provided below.

Registration Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd3UfU_kNEaVBadqJgZBll20bZR6u5_EyOzTJXe_gZGJbEiAw/viewform