The City council yesterday honored a homegrown film director for winning in the recent Filipino Academy of Movie and Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) awards 2019.
The city councilors recognized Jarell M. Serencio for bagging the Best Director-Short Film Category award for Siyudad sa Bulawan (City of Gold) film.
Councilor Leah Yap filed the resolution to cite the director for bringing honor to the city.
“His ‘relevant, high-quality and award-winning’ films deserve to be watched by our generation and people of all ages,” Yap said in her privilege speech.
According to Yap, Siyudad sa Bulawan also won Best Film at the 1st Palawan International film Festival and first runner-up in the open category of Cine Filipino Film Fest.
It is not the first time for Serencio to bring glory to the city as he won the Balanghai Trophy during the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival in 2012 for ‘Victor’ as Best Short Film.
In 2016, his short film, Mga Bitoon sa Siyudad (Stars in the City), earned him the award as Best Director for the short film category in the Metro Manila Film Festival 2016.
Librado is urging the public to support Serencio’s films.
“Let us give our support and encourage especially the youth to foster an appreciation for cinema and the arts,” she said.
Serencio finished the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication at Holy Cross of Davao College and later joined the first batch of ABS-CBN and Ricky Lee’s TV scriptwriting workshop in 2004.
He started as a contributing writer for the soap opera ‘Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas’ then became the head researcher/writer of ABS-CBN’s drama Maalala Mo Kaya. Last year, he was a recipient of a scholarship grant for selected Asian film producers/directors (one of the 20, all over Asia) in the International Film Business Academy in Busan Asian Film School in South Korea.
