The Metro Manila Film Festival is always controversial. Just go to the festival’s Wikipedia page to read about the numerous “notable incidents” that occurred throughout its 41 years of existence. The previous installment was no different. Hounded by critics due to the disqualification of the entry Honor Thy Father, the festival is currently at risk of being overhauled by Congress, which reportedly found inconsistencies and plenty of areas of improvement in the annual event and award-giving ceremony.
The reality of it is that the MMFF is hardly a “film festival” as entries are meant more to appeal commercially and generate revenue for the ailing domestic film industry than to showcase talent and excellence. It capitalizes on the Christmas holidays to boost ticket sales and bars the exhibition of foreign films to eliminate competition.
Perennial entries capitalize on formulaic storylines that almost always guarantee success and bank on box-office draws like Vice Ganda, Ai Ai delas Alas and Vic Sotto. It’s a no-brainer for the most part and the only point of interest each year is which movie starring a comedic superstar will emerge the top grosser.
One token “artistic” film is included in the annual roster – Honor Thy Father in the case of the 2015 edition – and said artistic film is often seen as the entry that will bag most of the awards. At the same time, it is also the movie that earns the least and gets pulled out of theaters first due to lack of public interest.
The question is, then – is a film festival a film festival if it favors commercial viability over artistic merit?
Are we even going to pretend that there is any validity to the awards recognizing the supposed “best” when very little effort was put into seven of the eight “films” (yes, I’m putting the word films in quotation marks) in contention? And for the love of filmmaking, how can one take the merit awards seriously when the body awards the Best Float as well?
More critical colleagues in the press have called out the MMFF for its sheer disregard of standards. I’m sure we all understand the local business of show’s need to resort to Band-Aid solutions to keep the industry earning money. We get it that they have to make movies that they know will sell to their target audiences.
One can argue that the country has other film festivals, such as Cinemalaya and CinemaOne Originals, that focuses on filmmaking excellence and social relevance, and that we should just leave the MMFF to its tried-and-tested moneymaking ways. But that brings me back to the question of whether or not the MMFF deserves to be called a film festival.
If Congress really will create a technical committee to study and makeover the MMFF, I’d like to suggest that they explore the possibility of making the event more focused.
If highlighting Filipino films’ quality and excellence is the goal, then standards should be in place in the tradition of the great film festivals of the world. I know for a fact that our filmmakers and artists are intelligent, artistic and possess high levels of taste – and therefore are more than capable of elevating mainstream Philippine cinema. After all, they are the same people who come up with some of the most well-crafted works of cinematic art that the general public rarely sees.
and Emil (Khalil Ramos)
If it’s commercial appeal and revenue generation, then let that be in the criteria for qualification and let’s stop the practice of including a token quality film. Then maybe we should stop calling the event a film festival. At its present state, the MMFF really is just a bunch of forgettable movies with tired cliches premiering at the same time.
The awards are simply a frivolous self-patting on the back. It’s actually embarrassing and quite disrespectful that they’re awarding the so-called best among works that do not at all reflect the excellence, passion, talent and skill of our dear filmmakers – great qualities that are most definitely there but are being disregarded and blatantly devalued by this festival of errors. It is indeed time for a change.
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