317-324 Plaridel • Vol. 18 No. 1 • January - June 2021 REVIEW Film Distribution and Its Discontents: A Review of Michael Kho Lim’s Philippine Cinema and the Cultural Economy of Distribution Elvin Amerigo Valerio Philippine independent or “indie” cinema as we understand it today is often traced back to Kidlat Tahimik’s 1977 avant-garde film Mababangong Bangungot [Perfumed Nightmare]. Written, directed, and produced by Kidlat on a miniscule budget, the film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival and was a critical success. Its triumph at the Berlin Film Festival led to its becoming the first Filipino film to be released commercially in Germany while its international distribution rights were eventually bought by American Zoetrope, the film company founded by Francis Ford Coppola (Sorilla, 2020). While much has indeed been written about the film’s achievements in Europe and the United States, few seem to highlight the fact that Mababangong Bangungot, a Filipino film, never had an actual theatrical run in the Philippines. Local critics, cineastes, and aspiring filmmakers who wished to see the film had no choice but to wait for the occasional special screening at film festivals or college campuses. Fast-forward thirty-two years later. Independent filmmaker Brillante Mendoza became the first—and so far, only—Filipino to win the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for his 2009 film Kinatay (a.k.a. e Execution of P). Isabelle Huppert, the jury president of Cannes that year, was so impressed with Kinatay that the acclaimed French actress agreed to star in Mendoza’s 2012 hostage thriller Captive. But despite the film’s historic win at Cannes, not to mention its more accessible linear storyline (as opposed to Mababangong Bangungot’s idiosyncratic narrative),