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Competition Films Control and Irina Palm to Open the 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival

Anton Corbijnís Control and Sam Gabarskyís Irina Palm will officially open the 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival (CIFF). Control, screened at the Cannes Film Festival, covers the life and death of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the legendary post-punk rock band, Joy Division. Irina Palm stars Marianne Faithful as Maggie, who resorts to charmingly unusual means to pay for her seriously ill grandsonís medication. The film was showcased in this yearís Berlin International Film Festival.

Both of these films are part of the 9th CIFFís International Competition, which also includes 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu); Ezra (Newton Aduaka); The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin); Foster Child (Brillante Mendoza); Love and Honor (Yoji Yamada); Namesake by Mira Nair; Ou-vas Tu, Moshe (Hassan Benjelloun); Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronaud); Poet of the Wastes (Mohammad Ahmadi); Postmodern Life of My Aunt (Ann Hui); Sankara (Prasama Jayakody); and Shotgun Stories (Jeff Nichols).

The ASEAN Competition includes the titles Balikbayan Box (Mes de Guzman, Philippines); Love Conquers All (Tan Chui Mui, Malaysia); Love For Share (Nia Di Nata, Indonesia); Mukhsin (Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia); Paoís Story (Quang Hai Ngo); Ploy (Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand); Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand); Things We Do When We Fall In Love (James Lee, Malaysia); Three Days to Forever (Riri Riza, Indonesia); The Unseeable (Wisit Sasanatieng, Thailand); and Village People Radio Show (Amir Muhammad, Malaysia).

The 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival will have its run from 8 to 19 August 2007 at Gateway Mall Cineplex 10 in Araneta Center, Quezon City, and from 17 to 19 August 2007 in Boracay Island. The CIFF is organized jointly by the Independent Cinema Association of the Philippines (ICAP), the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and a specially commissioned inter-agency committee, with Major Partners: the Office of the President, the Department of Tourism, CinemaOne, and Gateway Cineplex 10; Gold Sponsors: Manila Bulletin, Philippine Airlines, and Web Philippines Inc.; Festival Sponsor: ClicktheCity.com; Event Sponsors: Asian Spirit and Boysen Paints.

For more information, you may refer to the official CIFF website at http://www.cinemanila.org.ph or contact the Cinemanila Secretariat through its email address, cinemanila@gmail.com.

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