Philippine cinema
| Cinema of the Philippines | |
|---|---|
| Number of screens | 693 (2011) |
| • Per capita | 0.8 per 100,000 (2011) |
| Produced feature films (2005-2009) | |
| Total | 91 (average) |
| Number of admissions (2011) | |
| Total | 48,000,000 |
| Gross box office (2011) | |
| Total | $153 million |
| National films | $35.9 million (23.5%) |
The cinema of the Philippines (Filipino: Pelikulang Pilipino or Sine Pilipino) began with the introduction of the first moving pictures to the country on January 1, 1897 at the Salón de Pertierra in Manila. The following year, local scenes were shot on film for the first time by a Spaniard, Antonio Ramos, using the Lumiere Cinematograph. Early filmmakers and producers in the country were mostly wealthy enterprising foreigners and expatriates, but on September 12, 1919, a silent feature film broke the grounds for Filipino filmmakers. Dalagang Bukid (Country Maiden), a movie based on a popular musical play, was the first movie made and shown by Filipino filmmaker José Nepomuceno. Dubbed as the "Father of Philippine Cinema", his work marked the start of cinema as an art form in the Philippines.
Even with the problems currently facing motion pictures around the world, movies are still considered as one of the popular forms of entertainment among the Filipino people, directly employing some 260,000 Filipinos and generating around ₱2 billion revenues annually.
The Philippines was the last country to establish a national film archive, when one opened in October 2011.
The Luna Awards honor the outstanding Filipino films annually and are voted by their own peers. It is presented by the Film Academy of the Philippines. On the other hand, the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino hands out the Gawad Urian Awards, which is well-known due to its credible choices of winners. Currently, Box Office Mojo compiles the box office charts for this country.
The formative years of Philippine cinema, starting from the 1930s, were a time of discovering the film genre as a new medium of art. Scripts and characterisations in films came from popular theatre and familiar local literature. Nationalistic films were also quite popular, although they were labeled as being too subversive.
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