THE Metro Manila Film Festival Executive Committee (MMFF-Execom) announced on Friday the first four official movies entries for the MMFF 2017.
Thomas Orbos, Metro Manila Development Authority general manager and MMFF 2017 executive committee chairman, said the committee said the following entries have been thoroughly evaluated by the body’s selection panel:
Ang Panday, featuring Coco Martin, produced by CCM Creative Productions Inc. and directed by Rodel Nacianceno; Almost Is Not Enough, starring Jennylyn Mercado and Jericho Rosales, produced by Quantum and MJM Productions and directed by Dan Villegas; The Revengers, produced by Star Cinema and Viva Films, directed by Joyce Bernal and starring Vice Ganda, Daniel Padilla and Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach; and Love Traps, produced by Octoarts Films, directed by Antonio Reyes and featuring Vic Sotto and Dawn Zulueta.
With the push for artistic excellence that began in 2016, the MMFF this year, under the leadership of MMDA chairman Danilo Lim, received an encouraging and diverse roster of 26 film-entries that already crossed the so-called commercial-indie divide.
“Our selection committee had a difficult time to choose, given the quality of films. We have to thank them for their exhaustive and thorough deliberation,” said Orbos.
“We also have to give credit to this year’s Rules Committee which devised the two-part selection process that gave a greater latitude to interested participants for this year,” Orbos said.
He was referring to the new vetting scheme that was initially applied this year to assure that no discrimination would arise among commercial and the so-called “indie” films.
The film-entries this year were evaluated based on the following criteria: 40 percent artistic excellence; 40 percent commercial appeal; 10 percent promotion of Filipino cultural and historical values, and 10 percent global appeal.
The next phase for the Full Length Feature category will be the finished film submission.
The films with the duly accomplished application forms and complete requirements can be submitted to the MMFF Secretariat until Oct. 2 for early birds, and until Oct. 30 for the regular submission.
The remaining four official entries shall be selected from the all submitted finished films to complete the eight official entries to the 2017 MMFF, which will be announced on Nov. 17.
The deadline for the Short Film category, on the other hand, will be on Sept. 1 while the announcement for the eight official Short Film entries is on Sept. 29.
Last year’s festival failed to hit or surpass the P1 billion total gross it earned in 2015.
Also last year, the festival was surrounded by controversy when it included a film “Oro” which featured the actual killing of a dog.
The MMFF revoked the Fernando Poe Jr. Memorial Award given to the controversial film following complaints that a dog was slaughtered in the movie.
The committee also decided to ban the film director and the producers from joining the next festival because of the controversial scene and that they lied during the selection process of entries.
