MANILA, Philippines -- A Cannes festival call-up for two independent films is raising hopes of a rebirth for the struggling Philippine movie industry, hit by rampant piracy, high taxes and foreign imports.

"Serbis," an edgy drama by Brillante Mendoza, is competing for the Cannes festival's coveted Palme d'Or, the first Filipino film to be in with a shot at the top prize since the late Lino Brocka's "Bayan Ko" (My Country) in 1984.

Separately, Raya Martin's "Now Showing" has been picked for the Directors' Fortnight section, an independent event held in parallel to the mainstream May 14-25 festival.

But overall, the Philippines movie industry -- once one of the largest in the world -- is struggling to re-emerge from the doldrums.

"At least that (selection for Cannes) is one piece of good news for the industry, because we have had all the bad news the past five or six years," noted Leo Martinez, executive director of the Film Academy of the Philippines.

Mendoza and Martin are hopeful their selection will boost the independent film scene and the industry in general, but admit there is a long way to go.

"Serbis" is about a family living in a movie theatre which shows sex films, the title referring to male prostitutes who ply their services to cinema-going clients.

Martin's "Now Showing" -- almost five hours long -- is about a young girl growing up in Manila, dealing with a grandmother who used to be an actress and an aunt who sells pirated DVDs.

Neither movie has big stars and both focus on the seamy side of life, which may affect their commercial value.

"Moviegoers will go to a theatre to fantasize," Mendoza told Agence France-Presse.

"They don't want to see poverty, to see reality. They don't want to see what they see every day."

His "Serbis" barely made it to Cannes. He shot the film in just 12 days and spent a month in post-production that has only just been completed. He sent a rough cut to the selection committee late last month.

The independent movie scene is largely overlooked in the Philippines, and both Mendoza and Martin say their works were financed largely by grants from foreign foundations.

"We're always looking for an institution to fund our future projects," said Mendoza, an ex-advertising writer who still produces or directs the occasional television commercial to make ends meet.

With only three theatres in Manila showing independent movies, they cannot even be sure if or when their films will be seen by the public here.

Mendoza said his audience in the Philippines is largely made up of movie buffs and university students. Arguably, he may have a wider audience abroad where his films are distributed.

"We have high hopes (the Cannes selections) will spur more productions," the Film Academy's Martinez said.

"But realistically speaking, our masses do not care, or do not even know. They are unaware of these movies at all."

And mainstream movies too have their own problems. "In our heyday in the 1970s to the early 1990s we used to make 200 films a year. Now, we are doing 50 films a year," said Martinez.

He blamed it on the popularity of Hollywood blockbusters such as "Iron Man" which most theater owners prefer to book over Filipino fare.

Martinez also cited rampant piracy, with bootleg DVDs available as soon as the movies hit the big screen.

Commercial movies also suffer from a 30-percent "amusement tax" imposed by local governments on top of a value-added tax of 12 percent from the national government, making it harder for producers to eke out a profit.

Both Mendoza and Martin concede their movies may have trouble finding an audience in the Philippines, where moviegoers prefer star-studded love stories or slapstick comedies.

But Mendoza thinks the slowdown in commercial movies could be a boost for the independents.

"In the mainstream industry you have, maybe, one or two new films a month. With the independents, you have three or four a month.

"Since we have the output this could be the start of a new kind of cinema," he said.