Warner Bros Pictures hasacquired theatrical and home video rights in the Philippines to the Philippinefilm Mga Munting Tinig (SmallVoices), the country's submission for the foreign language film Academy Award and winner of the AudienceFavorite Award at the recent Palm Springs International Film Festival. Theannouncement was made today by Francis Soliven, general manager of Warner BrosPictures International Distribution (Philippines), and Rodolfo Confesor,managing director of Warner Home Video (Philippines).

The picture centres on ayoung teacher who tries to change the lives of a remote village community whenshe is assigned to a local elementary school. It was directed, co-written andco-produced by the Filipino director Gil M Portes and stars Alessandra deRossi, Dexter Doria, Gina Alajar and Amy Austria. Mga Munting Tinig receivedits world premiere in Toronto and is has been invited to upcoming internationalfilm festivals in Santa Barbara, Cleveland, Palm Beach, Paris, Edinburgh,Karlovy Vary, Copenhagen, Sydney and Melbourne.

"Mga Munting Tinig is a shining contribution to the Warner Bros. library of titles, and we are honored to distribute it locally. We're proud of these Filipino artists whose talents and achievements are world-class," said Soliven.

"We are mostprivileged to release this critically acclaimed film on home video. We hopethis marks the renaissance of locally crafted movies for the globalmarket," Confesor said in a statement.