10 PH films compete at 6th Aiffa in Malaysia

Rainerio Yamson II (left) and Christian Paolo Lat

A record 10 Filipino films have been picked to compete in the 6th edition of the Asean International Film Festival and Awards (Aiffa).

The biennial film event will be held from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4 at Kuching Sarawak, Malaysia.

The competing Filipino films are the following: Rainerio Yamson II’s “Angkas,” Carlo Obispo’s “The Baseball Player,” Louie Ignacio’s “Broken Blooms,” Christian Paolo Lat’s “Ginhawa,” Roman Perez Jr.’s “Kaluskos” and “Sitio Diablo,” TM Malones’ “Kargo,” Vince Tañada’s “Katips,” Ralston Jover’s “Latay,” and Joel Lamangan’s “Walker.”

The fifth edition in 2021 was held online due to pandemic restrictions. This year’s special guest is South Korean superstar Jung Ji-hoon, better known by his stage name Rain, according to Datuk Sebastian Ting, deputy minister 1 for tourism, creative industry and performing arts.

The Philippines has the largest delegation that includes actors Coleen Garcia, Max Eigenmann, Teri Malvar, Meryll Soriano, Joem Bascon, Benjamin Alves and Tommy Alejandrino.

“The Aiffa is seen as a great opportunity for multimedia and communication students to learn from and network with professionals of the industry,” the Borneo Post quoted Ting as saying, as a way to explain one of the main objectives of organizing the Aiffa.

“Out of the 120 films submitted by filmmakers from Asean member countries, the organizers picked 35. From among these, they chose 10 Filipino films. This is a first because they usually get only five to seven entries from us,” said Yamson, who also serves as Aiffa liaison officer in the Philippines. “We’re flying in a big group this year, although the largest so far was the one in 2015 when invited celebrities included Piolo Pascual and the Gutierrez siblings Ruffa, Richard and Raymond.”

National Artist for Film Nora Aunor was also given the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Technical skills

“Attending the festival is more for getting to know other people of the same industry in different countries. You also hope to collaborate with them in the future. Of course, there’s also that spirit of competition during the awards night,” said Yamson when asked what first-timers can expect at the Aiffa.

“What I observed there is that when it comes to our respective film industries, we’re all the same. We deal with the same problems. What’s interesting, though, is that colleagues from Indonesia and Malaysia would tell me how they envy the status of female actors in our industry. Female actors are considered equals of their male counterparts. In their countries, this is still not the case,” he pointed out.

“Another observation is the Philippines wins an award yearly, mostly either for acting or directing. What we lack, however, are technical skills. It’s always a good learning experience for us to go there. We already have good talents, but while we should nurture this further, we also have to focus on the technical side,” Yamson added.

Collaboration with US

“I also noticed that Malaysians and Singaporeans are very good at marketing. It would be interesting to have a project with a good Singaporean marketing team, a tech team from Thailand, and then actors from the Philippines. This is possible because there’s no longer any language barrier today,” he concluded.

“I’m there for the party,” said Lat, laughing. “I’m excited to be one of the delegates and meet other filmmakers. I have zero expectations, actually. I like the idea that we’ll be there to celebrate filmmaking in general.”

Lat, who is also a director and writer for the Los Angeles-based streaming platform UrbanFlix TV, added that he is determined to promote US-Philippine coproductions for any film genre, also with some streaming platforms.

This is likewise partly because of the ongoing strike of unions representing the writers and actors across Hollywood for contracts that prevent AIs from replacing them at their jobs.

“With US-PH coproductions, you can go independent. I’m currently in talks with writers and producers in the US to convince them to shoot in the Philippines. I first want to explain what a strike in Hollywood looks like. If you’re on set and you’re rolling, if some people are union members there, they could just show up with their pots and pans and make noise. They will really try to disrupt the shoot,” Lat began.

“I believe in the Filipino talent. While we are world-class, we really need to undergo a good restructuring. There’s no reason the Filipinos can’t be like the Koreans. It’s their structure in Korea.

“I really hope to meet Rain at the Aiffa. He was the reason I moved to the Philippines from the US. In one quote, Rain said, ‘I want to create art that is not inferior to the West.’ This is why he works so hard with his dancing, acting and singing. He is always training, so when he shows the product, it’s not less than what you see from him when he performs. I really believe in what he said.” INQ