It was both happy and sad Thursday last week for the movie industry. The event gathered the industry’s bigwigs who were all impressed at the Metro Manila Development Authority’s new building in the complex. It is called MMFF Cinema.
Earlier in the day, the building was inaugurated with Susan Roces and MMDA and MMFF Chairman Francis Tolentino cutting the ribbon to signify the theater’s opening.
Mercado and Derek Ramsay at the MMFF Cinema
Yet, the joy and happiness of the members of the industry was met with the sad news in the evening during the 40th Metro Manila Film Festival Appreciation Dinner when Tolentino annnounced he was resigning as MMDA chairman which also meant that he was leaving the Metro Manila Film Festival to the hands of someone the President of the Republic would appoint as his replacement. Tolentino said he woud be concentrating on his plans for 2016.
Thanking everyone of those who had been very supportive of him while MMDA and MMFF chairman, he said, “I am ovwerwhelmed with so much that the MMFF’s earnings have consistently increased annually. I am hoping that this year’s festival will see more quality movies and raise more funds for our beneficiary organizations. We will start the festival this summer with the Summer Student Film Fetival and hope that our youth and students send in their entries.”
The Student Short Film category is open to student filmmakers from various colleges and universities. The entries should have a maximum runnung time of 20 minutes and should have been made between 2014 and 2015. Deadline of submission is on April 17.
The Cinephone is a nationwide cellphone movie-making contest for high school and college students. The length of the video should just be three minutes and should have a specific theme. The deadline of submission is also on April 17. Only 60 videos will be chosen to be finalists.
received Lotlot De Leon accepts her cash reward from MMFF
for winning Best Supporting Actress in Kubot.
Photos: Eugenio Reyes
The announcment of the finalists in the Cinephone category is on April 22 and in the Studen Short Film is on April 24. The finalists’ entries will be screened from April 24 to May 1. And the winners will be known on May 4 in a ceremony at MMFF Theater. The Best Picture in the Students Short Film will receive P 50,000 and P 25,000 to the Special Jury prize winner. There will be six winners who will go home with P25,000 each in the Cinephone category.
Tolentino was proud to say that the four-story MMFF Cinema building would be the legacy he would leave behind with the industry. Now, members of the MMFF Screening Committee will no longer scrounge around for a screening room when watching entries to the festival beginning this year.
The highlight of the event was the awarding of cash incentives to the winners of last year’s MMFF announced during the awards night on Dec.27. Also, the MMFF signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Natuional Youth Commission and the Philippine Association of Communication Educators, Inc. (PACE) for their involvement in the Summer Student Film Festival.
The winners in last year’s Cinephone, New Wave, Animation, Student Short Films and mainstream movies receive their cash incentives. Among those who were at the MMFF Cinema to receive their cash rewards were New Wave Director Zig Dulay, Best Actor Allen Dizon, Best Supporting Actress Gloria Sevilla.
Ryzza Mae Dizon accepted her Best Child Performer incentive for My Big Bossing, also Best Supporting Actress Lotlot de Leon for Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2, Best Director Dan Gonzales, Best Actress Jennylyn Mercado, and Best Actor Derek Ramsay for English Only, Please. The producersof the Best Pictures Bonifacio, Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2, and English Only, Please also accepted their cash incentives.
Bonifacio received the most number of cash incentives. Apart from Best Picture, it also won the FPJ Memorial Award for Excellence and Gatpuno Antonio Villegas Cultural Award.
Mercado apologized for being late saying, “ma-traffic sa EDSA,” a line she made famous in the movie English Only, Please! and then belted out a song for everyone.
The beneficiaries of the 40th MMFF were MOWELFUND, Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), Optical Media Board (OMB), Anti-Film Piracy Council (AFPC) and Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).
Continued on C7
