Back to basics for MMFF

FILM BUFFS are relieved that, after many years of barking up the wrong cinematic tree, the Metro Manila Film Festival has finally opted to go back to its roots.

When it started in the ’70s as the Manila Film Festival, the 10-day exclusive focus on Filipino film offerings very successfully showcased the best movies that our film industry’s artists were capable of creating.

In fact, the festival was so successful and effective that it turned the tide for our homegrown filmmakers and studios. At the time, only two moviehouses in Manila showed local productions, while the rest screened an exclusive diet of foreign, mostly American, flicks.

But, the first Manila Film Festival’s offerings were so good that they impressed the local viewing public—and resulted in more theaters finally agreeing to screen Filipino movies, as well!

You would think that, after a “transformative” success like that, our producers would nurture the festival and its strong focus on quality. Unfortunately, some producers got greedy and worked to get the film fest moved to the more profitable Christmas-New Year playdate.

It was also expanded to the Metro Manila Film Festival, for greater reach and profitability.

Key focus

In the process, all too sadly and even tragically, its key focus on quality was blurred and replaced by the so-called “commercial viability” factor.

As a result, the festival’s content and impact were watered down, and it lost its hard-fought and hard-won “quality” cachet. Yes, it made a lot of money for its producers and “beneficiaries,” but it became a travesty of its original self and transformative premise.

Last year, however, criticism against the festival and its sins of commission and omission mounted, prompting its movers and shakers to finally institute reforms, starting with this year’s entries and selection process: The main adjustment is the fact that the “commercial viability” consideration which used to be given the decisive weight of 50 percent, is no longer a factor.

Instead, criteria for selection are now broken down, to wit: 40 percent for story, audience appeal and overall impact; 40 percent for cinematic attributes and technical excellence; Filipino sensibility, 10 percent, and global appeal, 10 percent.

In addition, only finished full-length and short films will be considered for selection. And the festival encourages producers to make movies for the child and youth audience sectors—which is only proper, because the festival unreels at Christmastime.

If these and other judicious and enlightened adjustments are made, the MMFF can finally be redeemed and saved from itself.

The next step (perhaps in 2017?) is for the MMFF to be handled not by the Metro Manila Development Authority, but by the Film Academy of the Philippines.

For now, however, we congratulate the MMFF and its proactive critics for initiating and provoking moves to bring it back to its very successful and effective basics. Those moves were able to turn the tide for the movie industry many decades ago—and can do the same once more, to set things right and great in 2016.