MTRCB chief meets US counterpart

TOTO Villareal with Cara MPAA officials Joan Graves (right) and Marilyn Gordon Sherman Oaks

Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) chair Eugenio “Toto” Villareal recently visited the agency’s US counterpart, the Classification and Ratings Administration (Cara) of the Motion Picture Association of America Inc. (MPAA).

At the Cara headquarters in Sherman Oaks, California, Villareal met with chair Joan Graves and vice chair Marilyn Gordon. Cara is a private ratings board under the MPAA, a nonprofit corporation of producers and distributors of films and TV programs.

The MTRCB chief cited four things he learned on his visit: “One: Ours is a government agency and theirs is a trade organization. Two: Our rules and regulations are imposed by law; theirs are contractual in nature. This means a producer/filmmaker may submit any material for review and classification.”

The MPAA is supported by film companies like Warner Bros., Fox, Miramax, Disney, Sony and Paramount.

Villareal added: “Their agency, like ours, seeks to help parents decide the kind of movies that their kids should see. Which means their reviews take a parental perspective, again like ours.”

He reported that the Cara also reviews and monitors advertising and publicity materials. “[Over there] a movie trailer or TV ad with an adult theme can appear only during gaps of shows made for mature audiences. Here, we require trailers and ads to be rated G (General Audiences).”

During their meeting, Villareal said, “I learned that, in the United States, the rating is part and parcel of the production process—a big consideration for scriptwriters.”  Marinel R. Cruz