RAIN or shine, the show goes on for Cinemalaya.

Typhoon ?Basyang? forced the six-year-old indie film fest to cancel screenings on Wednesday because of the Luzon-wide power outage.

The fest resumed on Thursday and is set to present its awards ceremony tonight (Sunday night) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This year marks a milestone since all the competition films, shorts and features, were projected in High Definition format, said competition director Laurice Guillen.

?HD is the minimum requirement for digital films in festivals abroad,? Guillen explained.

Last year, one entry was shown in HD ? Pepe Diokno?s ?Engkwentro,? which won two top prizes in Venice. ?But Pepe did it on his own,? Guillen said. ?This year, we arranged with our sponsor, Outpost, to have all our entries shown in HD.?

HD makes a world of difference, said festival director Nes Jardin. ?In 2005, our films were dark and grainy,? he recalled. Now the entries boast crisper and brighter images, he said. ?That?s the wave of the future. Pusan film fest programmer Kim Ji-Seok told me that all the movie theaters in Korea are shifting to digital. Here, SM has 25 digital theaters nationwide.?

The breakthrough entailed ?huge challenges? for the festival, noted Guillen. ?The technology is now more accessible, but it has also become more complicated. You cannot negotiate with technology. If it takes eight hours to render...you can?t lower it to six.?

?Some of the filmmakers were not able to factor the HD upgrade into their timetables,? said Jardin. ?As a result, there were some technical glitches on the first day.?

This year?s ?kinks,? said Guillen and Jardin, taught them valuable lessons for next year?s event. ?Then again, there may a better technology available next year,? Guillen said.

Cinemalaya plans to include an exhibition of Asian films next year, said Jardin.

This year?s competition films will be screened at UP Diliman?s Cine Adarna July 20 to 23 and July 26 to 30.