The Gawad CCP para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video, or Gawad Alternatibo for short, celebrated its 35th year by bringing together filmmakers and media practitioners from its outstanding roster of winners through the years for a one-day event of film screenings and necessary dialogues on the future of Philippine alternative cinema.
In celebration of its 35th year, the first ever Gawad Alternatibo congress, called the Gawad ALTipunan, was held on August 11, 2023 at the Jose Palma Room of the Philippine International Convention Center. It was attended by professional filmmakers, film critics and scholars, film professors, film students, aspiring filmmakers and film enthusiasts.
Taking inspiration from esteemed National Artist Kidlat Tahimik’s film addressed to his family, Orbit 50: Letters to my 3 Sons (1992), the Gawad Alternatibo Orbit 35 features reflections—ranging from filmmakers’ poetics presentation, essays, to messages on banners—from past and present Gawad Alternatibo awardees. This online repository of the Gawad Alternatibo congress proceedings aims to provide an accessible map of the Filipino alternative filmmaker’s diverse personal ways and means of learning from the past and present, through which one can glean a collective shaping of the future of Philippine alternative cinema.
Gawad CCP para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video, or Gawad Alternatibo for short, is the longest-running independent short film festival in Southeast Asia.