Paolo Villaluna discusses goals as new FAP head

“It’s the job of a village,” said film and television director Paolo Villaluna to explain how he intends to involve key industry people in his plan to make positive changes in the Film Academy Philippines (FAP) now that he’s been appointed director general.

Villaluna replaces filmmaker Manny Morfe, who assumed the position of officer in charge after actress Vivian Velez resigned as director general in 2022.

Villaluna said making positive changes in the agency can be achieved “by being inclusive and involving the right stakeholders in the creation of a revitalized Film Academy. This will include empowering all active guilds and at the same time assisting the fledgling ones,” he told Inquirer Entertainment in this exclusive interview.

Villaluna said this also includes partnering with relevant agencies, like the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment, and others.

‘Job of a village’

“There is a lot of hard work: creating a legal office—or grievance committee for workers—uniting guilds under one umbrella, monitoring working conditions, the Oscar selection, the national awards. But I always say that all stakeholders, guilds, relevant government agencies and workers are in this together. It’s the job of a village,” said Villaluna, who was appointed by Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) chair Jaime Laya to serve until June 2026.

Villaluna said he’s still adjusting to his new position. “It’s only been a few days. [I’m now] being called DG (short for director general) by colleagues, but I still prefer Paolo. Some people joke DGPV as a pun for my previous role as president of DGPI,” he said, laughing. DGPI refers to the Directors’ Guild of the Philippines, which Villaluna led from 2019 to 2022.

Villaluna said he was originally offered the director general position in January but had to turn it down because of prior work commitments. “As far as I know, industry stakeholders recommended me, I suppose given my background in community and film industry service with IFC (Independent Filmmakers Cooperative), DGPI and, recently, the IGA (Inter-Guild Alliance),” he began.

Even though he declined the position then, Paolo said that between January to May “so many crucial events happened in the industry and to film workers, including the passing of the Eddie Garcia Bill. I felt like having government support for film workers through a revitalized Film Academy will be crucial, so I accepted the responsibility,” he explained.

Revitalization

“Given the struggling state of the film industry, stakeholder leaders saw the need to revitalize FAP and its mandate. We all know FDCP is doing a truly amazing job of pursuing its development mandate and programs for cinema, and that Mowelfund (Movie Workers Welfare Foundation, Inc.) handles the welfare part for film workers. But who handles the working conditions for film workers, and guild development? That’s where we saw FAP filling the vacuum as the government umbrella organization of guilds and workers. A thriving cinema will be healthier when members of its workforce feel protected and are functioning in an environment where they feel comfortable,” Villaluna pointed out.

Among the FAP’s goals is to honor achievement in films through the Luna Awards, as well as to choose the country’s representative to the annual Oscar Awards. The FAP is the official counterpart of the United States’ Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas).

“[We plan] to strengthen our relationship with Ampas including foreign guilds, study the current structure of campaigning in the US and recommend how the government can assist our nominee to give us stronger chances in the future when we join the Oscars. The baseline of course is to have an amazing Filipino film to nominate,” he stressed.

When asked if he could already reveal which Filipino film would compete under the best foreign language category of the 2025 Oscars, Villaluna said: “I have just been in the job literally for a few days and the Oscar representative has already been chosen by a process initiated by the previous leadership. Moving forward, FAP will continue to follow the eligibility rules of the Academy with some changes on how we locally select our lineup of the shortlist. We’ll be instituting changes next year.”

He continued: “I have to say that its OIC, Manny Morfe, did an outstanding job of keeping FAP afloat given its limited resources and storied history. Having said that, we are now working on ensuring that FAP is revitalized and becomes a government agency with an actual working budget to realize its goals and mandate.”