About – FACINE

Our Mission & History

The Filipino Arts & Cinema, International or FACINE, a nonprofit media arts organization, is committed to develop and promote Filipino-American media arts and advance the interests of cinemas from the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora.

WHAT FACINE DOES
For its main activity, FACINE organizes the annual Filipino-American cine festival in San Francisco. It also hosts film-related events in the SF Bay Area.

HISTORY OF THE FESTIVAL
The FACINE festival, owes its roots to the 1st Filipino-American Film & Video Festival called Sine! Sine! that was organized in August 1993 as part of the first-ever Filipino-American Arts Exposition in San Francisco. It was a one-month exhibition of independent works, a total of about 60 short and feature-length films and videos – from the Philippines, the United States and elsewhere – held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room. Another set of nine Filipino feature films which included now-considered classics like Ishmael Bernal’s Himala and Eddie Romero’s Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon were screened at the Asian Art Museum, then located at the Golden Gate Park.

The first festival is still considered as the largest of its kind ever held in North America.

After three years of being held at different venues like the Pacific Film Archive and City College of San Francisco, the festival left FAAE and stood on its own in 1996 as separate organization now known as FACINE, when it held its own event at the San Francisco Main Library for the next 15 years.

On its 19th year, FACINE spread its wings wider when it brought the festival to three venues in October – the Bayanihan Center and the Manilatown Center in San Francisco and the War Memorial Center in Daly City. Co-presenters included the Filipino American Development Foundation, the Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the City of Daly City.

The FACINE festival became part of Bindlestiff Studio Presenting Program on its 20th year, FACINE XX/bente. The festival ran December 9-14, 2013 at the Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco.

The next year and for the first time, FACINE/21: the 21st annual filipino international cine festival was held in a commercial arthouse theater, the historic Roxie Theater in San Francisco, co-presented by the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center and the Global Filipino Network, on December 11-13, 2014. FACINE also started to honor film artists for their work with the first Gawad Gintong Ani [gold harvest] to Mr. Raymond Red, the first Filipino filmmaker to have received Best Film honors at the Cannes Film Festival.

This year, FACINE/26, the 26th annual filipino international cine festival will be held again at the Roxie Theater on October 18-20, 2019.

The Filipino Arts & Cinema, International or FACINE, a nonprofit media arts organization, is committed to develop and promote Filipino American media arts and advance the interests of cinemas from the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora.