It’s a brave new world for Philippine entertainment. With independent films becoming mainstream blockbusters and digital shows becoming talk-of-the-town hit programs, audiences are now clamoring for fresh and innovative content. One Philippine company that’s poised to meet this challenge is The IdeaFirst Company of award-winning writer-director Jun Robles Lana and award-winning producer-director Perci Intalan.
“Artists are now the stars of Philippine showbiz,” said Intalan. “People are now buying tickets if they see that a film has a good story made by good storytellers performed by a good cast of actors and actresses. This is the new winning formula: good story plus good cast. That’s why when we formed The IdeaFirst Company the vision was to put artistry at the core of our business.”
Indeed, The IdeaFirst Company has put together an impressive roster. Among its creative artists are Prime Cruz (Best Director at the QCinema International Film Festival for “Ang Manananggal sa Unit 23B”), Miko Livelo (writer-director of acclaimed comedies “Tanods,” “Blue Bustamante” and “I Love You To Death”), Ivan Andrew Payawal (writer-director of “I America,” which competed at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival), Dominic Lim (writer-director whose debut feature “The Write Moment” was selected for the 2017 QCinema International Film Festival) and Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo (writer-director of the award-winning “Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita” and the top-grossing indie “Kita Kita”).
In the roster of actors of The IdeaFirst Company are Christian Bables, the breakout star of the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival who now has Urian and MMFF Best Supporting Actor awards to his name, MMFF Best Supporting Actor nominee Cedrick Juan and Adrianna So (formerly known as Malak So).
With these creative and performing artists, The IdeaFirst Company is able to not only produce innovative content, it can now also act as the management company for these artists when they are engaged in projects with other production outfits, film studios and television networks.
“It’s an exciting time for all artists working in our industry, because there is an audience that’s now pushing us to do more and to do better,” opined Intalan. “So both as producers and as managers, we want everyone in our team to constantly challenge themselves. And with the roster we have, I am already quite excited for what’s coming. It looks like we are indeed entering a new golden age of Philippine entertainment.”