The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) - a longtime partner of Bakunawa Festival - and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) help in shipping the Critics Citations' Certificates and Bakunawa Figures to the international winners. Festival Director and Chief Programmer, Elvert Bañares, confirmed the news after he had a personal meeting with Ms. Mary Anne Luis, the Head of NCCA's Sentro Rizal - the international office and cultural hub of Philippine Arts & Culture - last July 27, 2022. Director Bañares previously visited NCCA (July 19, 2022) and met with Sentro Rizal officers while Ms. Luis was on official work leave. 

Miss Luis coordinated with DFA and confrimed the assistance it will be giving to Bakunawa Festival. For almost two months, Bakunawa Festival went back and forth to the main branch of the national post office to check on the availability of freight services which were haulted due to the pandemic and the backlogs. But on June 20, 2022, the post office staff presented a circular (No.22-38) which formalizes their non-acceptance of parcels/packages going to all countries except a list of 12 countries which doesn't include Indonesia, Spain and Germany - from which our winners reside.

With this news update, Bañares has since postponed the festival from October 2022 to December 2022 saying that, "We value our filmmakers. Until our filmmaker-awardees receive their certificates and packages, we should not proceed to the next edition." Bañares is hoping that the packages will be with the Film Critics' Citation Winners on or before November 2022. 

Bakunawa Festival extends its sincerest gratitude to the winners - Monica Tedja, Djenar Maesa Ayu, Reza Rahadian, Helen Gumanti, Roberto I. Ercolalo, Deny Joe, Bayu Kusuma - for  their patience for this unexpected delay. The pandemic has truly disrupted everything and this is the first time that happened to Bakunawa Festival. Bakunawa Festival values their patience and understanding as we have assured them that we have gone miles to make sure the packages reach them. 

Bakunawa Festival also extends its very special thank you to NCCA Sentro Rizal Office and the Department of Foreign Affairs for everything. 

This experience will definitely change Bakunawa Festival mode of awards for this year's edition and all physical awards for international films/filmmakers are discontinued until the Philippine Post will open its doors to parcels going to all countries. Bañares is very hopeful that postal operations be back soon so Bakunawa will be able to send physical Awards & Citations to its international winners. 

[ September 15, 2022 Manila, Philippines ]