Toward an ‘artistic’ MMFF

Photo taken from MMFF facebook account

Artistic excellence will be on top of the criteria of this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival, Rep. Alfred Vargas, a member of the event’s executive committee, told the Inquirer.

Under the new execom, the MMFF’s vision statement vows to be “a festival that celebrates Filipino artistic excellence, promotes audience development and champions the sustainability of the Philippine movie industry.”

The vision statement was one of the results of a recent planning workshop spearheaded by the new execom.

Members of the new execom, which is led by Emerson Carlos (chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, which spearheads the annual fest) are the following: Rhoderick Armamento (representing Joel Pagdilao of the Philippine National Police-National Capital Region Police Office), Eugenio Villareal (Movie and Television Review and Classification Board), Jesse Ejercito (producer), Edward Cabagnot (academe), Teodoro Granados (for Briccio Santos of the Film Development Council of the Philippines), Moira Lang (scriptwriter-producer), Bryan Ian Montances (for Sen. Sonny Angara), Marcus Ng (Metro Manila Theaters Association), Boots Anson-Roa (Movie Workers Welfare Foundation), Jun Romana (Bureau of Broadcast Services), Edgar Tejerero (SM Lifestyle Entertainment Inc.), Wilson Tieng (Movie Producers Distributors Association of the Philippines), and Vargas (who is also a movie-TV actor).

The new execom will vote on a crucial policy tomorrow, concerning the submission of entries.

In previous years, the festival accepted screenplays as basis for selection. During the congressional hearings on the MMFF last January, there was a move to change the requirement to “finished products,” recalled Leo Martinez, director general of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), one of the fest’s beneficiaries.

Recounted Martinez: “It was agreed that, together with the inclusion of the FDCP as cochair in the execom, the submission of films will be based on finished products already.”

Martinez found it “surprising” that the matter would be voted on again.

In FAP’s position paper, Martinez pointed out: MMFF entries “must be selected not from the scripts but from finished products.”

Martinez said that the finished products reflect “the filmmaker’s vision and creativity in telling a story.”

“The submission of finished films will open the field and give chances to filmmakers who are not part of giant networks/producers to compete,” said Martinez. “In effect, more film workers who are not necessarily tied to the networks/producers will also be given work opportunities.”

Filmmaker Jose Javier Reyes told the Inquirer: “There are pros and cons… pluses and minuses to both sides of this issue.”

From a producers’ perspective, submitting a script is a matter of practicality.

“If a script is disapproved, the producer doesn’t have to make the film,” Reyes explained. If a movie is not accepted in the fest, “a major producer can easily find a playdate; the same is not true for an indie filmmaker.”

He, however, took note of one of the drawbacks of having scripts as basis for inclusion in the fest. “In the past, some MMFF entries turned out to be totally different from the submitted scripts.”

In the end, Reyes said, one thing has to be clarified: “Is this a festival of artistic excellence or commercial viability?”