Founder and Chairman, Joseph E. Estrada, dreamt of professionalizing one day the movie industry which operated on the untrained ways of his generation and other earlier generations of movie workers and artists. Early in its creation, the MOWELFUND embarked in 1979 on a scholarship program that saw the training of seven scholars in the United States and the subsidized education of twenty-one scholars under the Ateneo-Mowelfund Program for Artists in Cinema and Television (AMPACT). Early in its creation, the MOWELFUND embarked in 1979 on a scholarship program that saw the training of seven scholars in the United States and the subsidized education of twenty-one scholars under the Ateneo-Mowelfund Program for Artists in Cinema and Television (AMPACT).

MFI is the educational arm of the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation, Inc.

(MOWELFUND)-a private, non-stock, non-profit organization. It is a training center that offers production workshops, seminars and forums in filmmaking and related arts, organizes film exhibitions and events to promote outstanding works in Philippine cinema and provides assistance to students and aspiring filmmakers. Here, 3 month short courses are held in various subjects including Scriptwriting (Analysis, Dialogue, Storyboard, etc.); Direction (Directing Actors, Casting, etc.); Production (Management, Financing, Co-production, Executive Production, etc.) and Animation / Cartoon Film. With its facilities in Super-8, 16mm and video, it sought alternative ways in film education without resorting to the expensive demands of professional filmmaking. However, except for some independent productions made outside the workshops, the Institute maintained a low profile as it sought its direction vis-à-vis developments in the movie industry.