Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte wants to promote film tourism in the “City of the Stars” through its own international film festival and other programs.
“Quezon City is promoting itself through another rich form of tourism and this is cinema tourism. That’s why we [have] the Quezon City international film festival,” Belmonte said.
Dubbed the QCinema International Film Festival, the city-wide film festival follows in the footsteps of other local film showcases, such as the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino, both held this August.
“We have succeeded in putting this film festival in the film tourism circuit so those who are interested in cinema, they go to Busan in Korea in early October and they come to Quezon City for the Quezon City international film festival in mid-October and then they go to Tokyo for the Tokyo international film festival,” Belmonte said.
“We’re the only city that has an international film festival, and we’re now on our sixth year,” she added.
Earlier, the vice mayor said the 37-member city council is studying to pass a measure requiring cinemas to feature Filipino films for one week during the “Buwan ng Wika” in August.