The trailer of the CineFilipino entry “Ang Taba Ko Kasi” has been disapproved for public exhibition by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).
“I am in a state of confusion,” filmmaker Jason Paul Laxamana told the Inquirer via Facebook messenger.
Laxamana said that he couldn’t understand why the MTRCB gave the trailer of his romantic-comedy film “an X rating.”
“It’s not offensive at all or it’s a hundred times less offensive than the approved trailers in theaters like ‘Deadpool,’” Laxamana asserted.
Laxamana said that there is a need to look into the MTRCB’s previous rulings on trailers. “Otherwise filmmakers and producers will always be in the dark as to how to make their trailers and final cuts. And (that’s) costly and inefficient.”
READ: ‘Ang Taba Ko Kasi’ spotlights tubby folks
Eugenio Villareal, the board’s chair, told the Inquirer: “In response to some queries from media … the MTRCB wishes to clarify that there is, as of this date, no final rating for the said material.”
Villareal explained that although they failed to get on first review a favorable classification, the producers/filmmakers behind the film’s trailer can file for a motion for a second review.
“(They have) five days from March 9,” he pointed out. “As of today (March 12), the MTRCB has not received any such motion from the applicant, TV5,” the board chief related.
Since the rating is not yet final and the applicant has yet to appeal the case, “it would be imprudent to comment on the preliminary rating given.”
Villareal noted that when a trailer is deemed “not for public exhibition,” it “simply means that it went beyond the PG (Parental Guidance) rating.”
He told the Inquirer that, “consistent with its legal mandate to be of service to the film industry,” the MTRCB is more than ready to entertain the applicants’ motion for a second review.
“It would greatly help also if, in the process, all those concerned will be guided by the norms under MTRCB Memo Circular 04-2014, which governs the review of trailers,” he remarked.
Villareal reiterated that the MTRCB is “open to a dialogue with the creatives, as accompanied by producers/sponsors.”
He clarified: “They must understand that there is a process that must be followed and the MTRCB will always be there to assist (them) as much as it can.”
According to reports, the trailer of another CineFilipino entry (“Straight to the Heart”), along with two short films, likewise encountered problems with the MTRCB.
The CineFilipino film festival runs from March 16 to 22.
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