The Film Development of the Philippines’ flagship international film lab for Filipino and Southeast Asian films and filmmakers is set for an exciting three years. The Full Circle Lab Philippines has announced not only its latest edition with applications opening this coming January, 2022 as a part of its three-year vision that will culminate into the FCL Horizons, but will also be introducing a new section—the Story Editor’s Lab and a bigger Fiction Lab welcoming twelve participants, four more from the previous years’ eight. 

The Full Circle Lab (FCL) Philippines vision, in partnership with Tatino films, aims to hold the annual lab for three more years from 2022 to 2024, with the upcoming 2022 edition having a two-part hybrid workshop which will include an onsite residential workshop in April and follow-up online sessions in September 2022. The 5-month program will be composed of 4 separate film labs, First Cut Lab and Fiction Lab under the project-based labs, Creative Producers Lab  and Story Editing Lab under the talent and skills-based labs.

The first installment of the next edition of FCL is a five-day residential workshop set to be held from April 26 to 30, 2022 where mentors and participants can interact and collaborate in a face-to-face set-up. This will be followed by online sessions during the celebration of the Film Industry Month in September 2022, where consultations will be done virtually. 

FDCP Chair and CEO Liza Diño shared, “We are delighted to renew our partnership with Tatino Films especially because next year, we will be celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations between France and the Philippines. With FDCP’s long-term partnership with Tatino Films through what we call Horizons 2025, we are taking concrete steps toward making the Philippines a creative Hub for Filmmaking in the South-East Asian region.” 

Film projects, series, animations, and talents representing the Philippines and neighboring countries Brunei, Cambodia, East-Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are welcome to apply. This new three-year cycle will be seeing a mentoring team enriched with film professionals from Asia and mentors from all over the world. 

“The whole world is looking at Asia now, and we want to capitalize on that and make sure that we are ready and equipped with the tools to take our diverse and unique stories to the global stage,” Diño added.

The program will be selecting 12 projects for Fiction Lab, 3 projects for First Cut Lab, 8 participants for Creative Producers Lab, and 3 participants for the new Story Editing lab. 

Full Circle Lab Philippines is a capacity-building program aimed at supporting Filipino and Southeast Asian filmmakers. Through organizing the various labs ranging from the stages of pre-production to post-production, the program enhances selected projects from around the globe, elevating a particular film to its highest potential and allowing it to reach international standards. The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) brought FCL to the country in partnership with Tatino Films, a French production and consulting firm that created the programs of the film lab.

Official call for entries and participants will be opened on January 10, 2022. 

More details and announcements will soon be available through Full Circle Lab Philippines’ Facebook page and Instagram.