After 24 years, another Filipino film made it to compete in the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival in France.

Brillante “Dante” Mendoza, known for award-winning indie movies like “Masahista” and “Foster Child”, has a new movie to give honor to the country. “Serbis“, a story about a rural family that decides to run a prostitute service based in a fake theater, has been nominated for competition in “Cannes”, the most prestigious international film festival in the world.

The first and only time a Filipino director had a film including in the competition category of the Cannes Filmfest was in 1984, when Brocka’s opus “Orapronobis” was accepted.

The film stars award-winning actress Gina Pareño (Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo, Kubrador) and RP’s prince of indie movies Coco Martin (Masahista, Daybreak, Tirador).

Following is the list of this year’s contenders and directors competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or award on May 14 to 25, 2008:

“Uc Maymun” (The Three Monkeys)
by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)

“Le Silence De Lorna” (The Silence of Lorna)
by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium)

“Un Conte de Noel” (A Christmas Tale)
by Arnaud Desplechin (France)

“Changeling”
by Clint Eastwood (United States)

“Adoration”
by Atom Egoyan (Canada)

“Waltz With Bashir”
by Ari Folman (Israel)

“La Frontiere De l’Aube” (The Frontier Of Dawn)
by Philippe Garrel (France)

“Gomorra”
by Matteo Garrone (Italy)

“24 City”
by Jia Zhangke (China)

“Synecdoche, New York”
by Charlie Kaufman (United States)

“My Magic”
by Eric Khoo (Singapore)

“La Mujer Sin Cabeza” (Woman Without A Head)
by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina)

“Serbis”
by Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)

“Delta”
by Kornel Mundruczo (Hungary)

“Linha de Passe” (Line of Passage)
by Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas (Brazil)

“Che”
by Steven Soderbergh (United States)

“Il Divo”
by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)

“Leonera”
by Pablo Trapero (Argentina)

“The Palermo Shooting”
by Wim Wenders (Germany)

Out of competition:

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
by Woody Allen (United States)

“The Good, The Bad, The Weird”
by Kim Jee-Woon (South Korea)

“Kung Fu Panda”
by Mark Osborne, John Stevenson (United States)

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
by Steven Spielberg (United States)

Just recently, Dante Mendoza’s “Tirador” has won the grand prize in Singapore International Film Festival.