The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) has announced the winners of its inaugural CCP Animation, Comics, and Computer Games Grants Program. Seventeen individuals from all over the country won grants amounting to over 16 million pesos to develop computer games, animation and comics.
The winners are:
COMPUTER GAMES PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY
1. Ranida Games’ Sinag – San Pedro, Laguna
2. Metamedia Information Systems Corp.’s Treasure Seekers – Mandaluyong
3. Synthillate’s Pearls of Asia – Ortigas, Pasig
COMPUTER GAMES INDEPENDENT CATEGORY
1. kendikorp’s Galá – Las Piñas City
2. Katakata Creative’s Kata – Parañaque City
3. Makiling Interactive Arts’ San Fernando – Los Baños, Laguna
ANIMATION CATEGORY
1. Friendly Foes’ Makopa – San Juan, Metro Manila
2. KOMIKET INC.’s Tungkung Langit at Laon Sina – Makati City
3. Fizzbuzz, Inc.’s Tiki – Cebu City
4. Lea Zoraina Sindao Lim’s Datu Pat i Mata – Cotabato City, Maguindanao
COMICS CATEGORY
1. Randy P. Valiente’s Lalang Kalibutan – Antipolo City
2. Ethel Mae Reyes’ Tulogmatian – Iloilo City
3. Julius Sempio’s Teduray – Bulacan City
4. Alfred Ismael Galaroza’s Sinogo – Cebu City
5. Marco Sumayao’s Legend of Sleeping Beauty Mountain – Quezon City
6. Ruel Garcia Enoya’s Bantugen – Manila City
7. Anabelle Marie D. Laureola’s Sun says Moon says – Manila City
The winners were chosen from 39 submissions from Game Developers (29 Independent Game Developers and 10 professional Game Developers); 65 submissions for Animation and Comics (36 Applicants for Comics and 29 Applicants for Animation).
Three Professional Games grantees were awarded Php1.5 million each and three Independent Games grantees were awarded Php300,000 each.
Four Animation Grantees were awarded Php2 million each and 7 Comics grantees were awarded Php330,000 each.
“The CCP grants programs for game developers, animators and comic artists are pioneer projects initiated by the CCP Board of Trustees in support of its mandate in preserving, promoting and making known of timeless stories, myths, legends and other forms of communication through digital art forms in support of our country’s creative economy,” CCP Trustee Nikki Junia says.
Furthermore, CCP Trustee Benedict Carandang hopes that the seed investment of the CCP will help encourage future government legislators to support and fund programs like this that can help stimulate the local Creative Economy and emulate the success stories of South Korea and Malaysia in Digital Content Development.
Aside from awarding funding to grantees, the CCP also has partnered with the Creative Content Creators Association of the Philippines, Inc. (SIKAP) to train the grantees through a learning series program.
SIKAP is a non-profit association that has a simple vision in mind: locally created content, consumed globally. It aims to mentor and nurture a community of creators who are able to prepare, develop, sell and license their intellectual properties competitively.
Through the partnership, CCP and SIKAP work towards identifying and tapping industry leaders and practitioners to provide a more holistic understanding of the comics and animation industries. The learning series was developed to educate and inspire ways for our creators to move towards a more sustainable creative future. Some of the topics for the learning series include story and visual development but it also covers learning opportunities on production costs, financing, copyright, distribution strategies, and more.
“We have a long history of producing comics and animation. But we’ve always been viewed as hired talent. It simply isn’t sustainable and it doesn’t help us in the long run. What we really need are real investments that provide opportunities for Filipino creators to develop our storytelling and producing skills to make this sustainable,” Ayeen Pineda, SIKAP Board Director. “This is why SIKAP supports CCP in providing creators an opportunity to tell Filipino stories. Although the current Grants Program focuses on Filipino folktales, myths and legends, we also hope it expands to include original Filipino stories of any genre in the future.”
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