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Story and photo by Alvin I. Dacanay
Followers of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) can expect better films and a streamlined awards ceremony this year after its new, 14-member executive committee introduced sweeping changes to the festival, including a renewed focus on artistic excellence.
During a press conference at the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Auditorium in Makati City on April 14, MMDA and MMFF Chairman Emerson S. Carlos and several committee members said the festival’s New Wave section for independent films, added by former Chairman Francis M. Tolentino in 2011, will be scrapped.
The move, they explained, will allow such films to vie with mainstream movies for the eight slots in the MMFF lineup.
“Wala na po tayong dichotomy between indie (and) regular films. Iko-consider natin lahat ng films na iisa. Walang discrimination po dito (There would be no dichtomy between indie and regular films. We’ll all consider them as one kind. There’s no discrimination here),” Carlos said.
Another committee member, film professor and festival programmer Ed Cabagnot, noted that the distinction between indie and mainstream films has been blurred in the last 10 years, and said the committee “would like to celebrate this by giving both a chance to compete with each other,” since they’re all Filipino movies.
This year, the selection of festival entries—which should be in finished film format upon submission—will be based on these revised criteria: story, audience appeal, and overall impact (40 percent), cinematic attributes/technical excellence (40 percent); global appeal (10 percent); and Filipino sensibility (10 percent).
The submission deadline is on Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. The entries will be screened from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7, and deliberated on on Oct. 8. The eight finalists will be announced on Oct. 11.
According to screenwriter and independent film producer Moira Lang, also a committee member, producers must pay a P50,000 entry fee when they submit their films, but those who submit on or before Sept. 14 will only pay a discounted “early bird” fee of P30,000.
Cabagnot said the selection committee will be made up of brilliant personalities who have “pagmamahal sa pelikulang Pilipino (love for Philippine cinema)” and “really know what the criteria (are all about) and what we’re (the executive committee) striving for.”
They include writers, journalists and film-industry practitioners, he added.
Also, producers or movie studios can submit as many finished entries to the MMFF as they wish.
“Hindi po namin ili-limit, kasi ang habol po natin ay artistic excellence (We will not limit the number of entries a producer can submit, because what we’re after is artistic excellence),” Carlos said.
Movies that have debuted in international film festivals can be submitted to the MMFF, as long as they have not yet premiered in the country, the committee members said.
Short-film contest
Replacing the New Wave section would be a short-film competition, in which entries, Carlos said, should last a maximum of five minutes.
“They will be shown together with our eight entries” during the festival’s regular run, he added.
Minor awards, such as second and third best picture and best child performer—which Carlos called “discriminatory”—would be discontinued, but two special ones will be added: the audience’s choice and kids’ choice awards.
According to Movie and Television Review and Classification Board Chairman Eugenio H. Villareal, also a committee member, children will be involved in selecting the winner of the second award.
“Kids will be evaluating” the entries, Villareal said, adding that these entries should be rated General Audience (G) or Parental Guidance (PG) to be considered for the prize.
It is unclear if other prizes, such as the Gatpuno Antonio Villegas Cultural Award and the FPJ Memorial Award for Film Excellence, would continue to be given out.
A cash prize would no longer be given in the best picture category, according to the committee members.
Asked about the composition of the board of jurors, Cabagnot said it would have nine members. He added that, once all the executive committee members have voted on them, “they are all going to be strictly enforcing” the MMFF’s focus on artistic excellence.
For his part, Carlos said “no member of the executive committee would be joining any other subcommittee of this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival.”
The expected better films and simplified awards ceremony will be the direct result of the radical changes unveiled by the new executive committee, whose members were chosen by Carlos upon the recommendation of Congress.
He described them as “a mix of the old and the new, of (representatives of) government and private entities” from different sectors who are all “stakeholders in the film industry” and love Philippine cinema.
Besides Carlos, Villareal, Cabagnot and Lang, other members at the conference were Robert Rivera, representative of veteran producer Jesse Ejercito; Bryan Ian Montaces, standing in for Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement; and Precious Maiquez, representing Rep. Alfredo Vargas III of Quezon City, a former actor and model.
Chief among the changes are the MMFF’s new vision to be “a festival that celebrates Filipino artistic excellence, promotes audience development, and champions the sustainability of the Philippine film industry,” and its new mission to “develop audiences for and encourage the production of quality Filipino films, and to promote the welfare of its workers.”
The changes came after the previous MMFF executive committee disqualified the acclaimed thriller Honor Thy Father from the festival’s best picture race last December under suspicious circumstances.
The resulting controversy led to a congressional inquiry that exposed, among others, irregularities on Honor Thy Father’s disqualification and alleged conflict of interest.