About – FACINE

Our Mission & History

The Filipino Arts & Cinema, International or FACINE, a nonprofit media arts organization, is committed to develop and promote Filipino-American media arts and advance the interests of cinemas from the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora.

WHAT FACINE DOES
For its main activity, FACINE organizes the annual Filipino-American cine festival in San Francisco. It also hosts film-related events in the SF Bay Area.

HISTORY OF THE FESTIVAL
The FACINE festival, owes its roots to the 1st Filipino-American Film & Video Festival called Sine! Sine! that was organized in August 1993 as part of the first-ever Filipino-American Arts Exposition in San Francisco. It was a one-month exhibition of independent works, a total of about 60 short and feature-length films and videos – from the Philippines, the United States and elsewhere – held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room. Another set of nine Filipino feature films which included now-considered classics like Ishmael Bernal’s Himala and Eddie Romero’s Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon were screened at the Asian Art Museum, then located at the Golden Gate Park.

The first festival is still considered as the largest of its kind ever held in North America.

After three years of being held at different venues like the Pacific Film Archive and City College of San Francisco, the festival left FAAE and stood on its own in 1996 as separate organization now known as FACINE, when it held its own event at the San Francisco Main Library for the next 15 years.

On its 19th year, FACINE spread its wings wider when it brought the festival to three venues in October – the Bayanihan Center and the Manilatown Center in San Francisco and the War Memorial Center in Daly City. Co-presenters included the Filipino American Development Foundation, the Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the City of Daly City.

The FACINE festival became part of Bindlestiff Studio Presenting Program on its 20th year, FACINE XX/bente. The festival ran December 9-14, 2013 at the Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco.

The next year and for the first time, FACINE/21: the 21st annual filipino international cine festival was held in a commercial arthouse theater, the historic Roxie Theater in San Francisco, co-presented by the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center and the Global Filipino Network, on December 11-13, 2014. FACINE also started to honor film artists for their work with the first Gawad Gintong Ani [gold harvest] to Mr. Raymond Red, the first Filipino filmmaker to have received Best Film honors at the Cannes Film Festival.

For the next six years, the Roxie Theater was home to the festival. FACINE 24 restored the competition section in both full-length and short film categories; a tiered awarding began the next year at FACINE 25. The pandemic in 2020 made plans for the 27th year impossible that the Executive Committee decided to cancel the year’s event. FACINE 28 goes full online on the festival’s return in 2021.

The following are honorees of the past festival

GAWAD GINTONG ANI ("Old Harvest")
A Lifetime Achievement honor given to an individual film artist.

2014 - Raymond Red, Director
2015 - Elwood Perez, Director
2016 - Gloria Sevilla, Actress
2017 - Nick Deocampo, Historian, Director
2018 - Bernardo Bernardo, Actor (posthumous)

GAWAD LINGAP SINING ("Art Nurturer")
A special award given to an individual or group who/which has contributed to the growth and development of Filipino cinema.

2015 - Cinema One Originals, grants-giving producer
2016 - Prof. Joel David, critic, academic, scholar
2017 - Society of Filipino Archivists for Film; - ABS-CBN Film Restoration Project
2018 - Animahenasyon/Animation Council of the Philippines

GAWAD SULONG, SINE ("Forward Film")
A special recognition given to an individual or group who/which has contributed to the promotion of Filipino cinema abroad.

2016 - Ferdinand Lapuz
2017 - Andrew Leavold; Evelyn Vargas-Knaebel
2018 - Jojo de Vera

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Filipino Arts & Cinema, International or FACINE is a nonprofit media arts organization. We are committed to develop and promote Filipino American media arts, and advance the interests of cinemas from the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora.