Serbis Wins Best Director and Best Actress Awards in Pacific Meredian International Film Festival

Indie film Serbis won the Best Director Award for Brillante Mendoza and Best Actress Award for Gina Pareño in the Pacific Meredian International Film Festival of Asian-Pacific Countries held in Vladivostok, Russia last Sept. 13 to 19. Director Mendoza attended the festival to accept the awards.

Serbis which premiered to mixed reviews in Cannes main competition last May had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Regent Entertainment has acquired the US distribution Regent Entertainment and they have confirmed that Serbis will open theatrically in select cities in the US in November. It will have its US premiere as an official selection in the New York Film Festival next month.

Regent said with the release of Serbis this year, it is possible that it will qualify for the Best Foreign Language Film category in the Golden Globes awards and critics awards like the Los Angeles and New York Film Critics Awards.

Fortissimo executives Michael Werner and Wouter Barendrecht announced that they have finalized the Canadian deal of Serbis for Maximum Distribution for English Canada and Seville Pictures for French Canada.

French co-producer Dider Costet is also releasing Serbis in France in November. Equation (the distributing arm of Swift Productions) is handling the French distribution of the film.

Thailand’s Sahamongko Films plans to release Serbis later this year. Other territories which acquired Serbis so far are Benelux with Paradiso Entertainment, Singapore and Brunei with Cathay, Portugal with Lusomundo, Greece with Seven Films and in Israel with United King.

Brillante will attend the New York screening of Serbis on Oct. 12. He will also serve as instructor at the Asian Film Academy (Sept. 25 to Oct. 12) in Pusan, Korea. Director Hou Hsiao Hsien will be this year’s Dean of the AFA.

In November, Brillante will sit as a member of the jury in the international competition section of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece where Serbis will be screened in the Independence Days section with Francis Pasion’s Jay. Paolo Villlaluna and Ellen Ramos’ Selda is in the main competition section.

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