PASIG CITY – TBA Studios, the independent film company behind such acclaimed movies as the blockbuster Heneral Luna, the Urian-winning & MMFF best picture Sunday Beauty Queen, I’m Drunk, I Love You, and Bliss, held its grand launch on Wednesday, July 26 at the Marquee Tent of EDSA Shangri-la Hotel. TBA Studios executive producers E.A. Rocha and Fernando Ortigas opened the event with major announcements on the company’s most recent partnership deals.
The group has entered into a strategic partnership with the country’s leading telecommunications company, Globe Telecom. TBA Studios and Globe Studios are co-producing several projects including Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral, the much-awaited follow-up to Jerrold Tarog’s Heneral Luna. Globe is also going to provide marketing support for Birdshot, an official entry to the forthcoming Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino, to ensure that the critically acclaimed film will reach more audience when it opens on August 16.
Other exciting film projects unveiled by TBA Studios include Carlo Obispo’s 1-2-3, a gripping family drama, which opened last year’s Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Women of the Weeping River, which took home top prizes in the recently concluded 40thGawad Urian Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Mindanaoan filmmaker Sheron Dayoc. Another highly anticipated project is the chilling crime thriller Smaller and Smaller Circles directed by Raya Martin, based on the best selling novel of F.H. Batacan.
TBA Studios also confirmed that the film adaptation of the popular graphic novel The Mythology Class is already in development. Its creator Arnold Arre and director Tarog, who would helm the project, made the official announcement.
Cast members and directors of TBA Studios’ upcoming and past movie projects attended the festivities. Also present were the different government agency partners as well as corporate sponsors, who helped TBA Studios along the way.
Aside from producing quality films, the company continues to expand its reach and scope by creating various distribution platforms that will promote and enrich the local movie industry. In 2016, the company launched Cinetropa, a Filipino-movie streaming site created exclusively to give Filipino films more exposure on a global scale, and Cinema ’76, a micro-cinema dedicated solely to regularly playing independent films. With the success of Cinema ’76, Vincent Nebrida, TBA President and Cinema ’76 co-founder, announced that the popular micro-cinema would open a new and bigger branch very soon. Cinema ’76 will also continue to hold series of master classes and workshops to hone multi-faceted skills in filmmaking.
It’s only been three years since TBA Studios has been established. Comprised of three movie outfits, Tuko Film Productions under Fernando Ortigas, E.A Rocha’s Buchi Boy Entertainment, and Artikulo Uno Productions, which produces Jerrold Tarog’s films, TBA Studios as a brand is fairly new. But despite being rookies in the industry, the group has made its mark in the Philippine film industry for pushing the envelope towards high-quality filmmaking.
“Despite our age, Nando and I are the oldest babies in the industry,” Rocha quipped. “But we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. They call us ‘game changers’, but really, it’s because the audience owned our vision. We want to make films that the Filipinos deserve.”
“We want to produce movies that Filipinos will remember,” Ortigas added. “We would like that everybody that goes to the movie theaters and sees the TBA branding would know that once they see it, they will enjoy the movie and come out happy with it.”
Know more about TBA Studios and its projects. Visit www.tba.ph for a comprehensive guide to the company’s portfolio and TBAStudiosPh on Facebook.
