The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority is now in the process of selecting the official movie entries for the country’s first ever summer film festival scheduled this April.
The submission of entries in finished film formats ended on Saturday (Feb. 15).
MMDA chief and Metro Manila Film Festival chairman Danilo Lim said the Summer Film Festival selection committee will choose eight official entries based on the following criteria: artistic excellence 40 percent; commercial appeal 40 percent; Filipino cultural sensibility 10 percent; and global appeal 10 percent.
“We look forward to the success of the summer festival, a spin-off of the annual MMFF held every December, to encourage Filipino filmmakers to create more films and showcase the cinematic artistry and talents of the members of the Filipino movie industry,” said Lim.
The official entries will be revealed on March 2 and will be shown in cinemas from April 11, Black Saturday up to April 21.
Meanwhile, students who wish to participate in the Student Short Film Competition have until February 28 to submit their entries with Pinoy Pride as its theme. Joel E. Zurbano
The much-awaited Parade of Stars will be hosted by the local government of Quezon City on April 5, Palm Sunday. Floats carrying celebrities of the summer film festival’s entries will march from Welcome Rotonda-Quezon Avenue to Quezon Memorial Circle. The awards night will be held on April 15.
Just like the regular MMFF during Christmas, the Parade of Stars is one of the highlights of the festival.
The summer film festival was proposed by Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, a member of the 2019 MMFF Executive Committee, aimed to encourage the production of more quality Filipino films. The event is in partnership with the Cinema Exhibitors Association of the Philippines.
Three years ago, Senator Vicente Sotto III filed a resolution also asking the MMDA to establish a film festival “exclusively for the independent films during the long semestral break”, citing the changes made to 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival as one of the reasons behind the recommendation for a new film festival.
He made the proposal following the outcome of the 2016 film festival when most of the movie entries were ‘indie-films” or made by independent producers.
Sotto, a former actor, had expressed his disappointment and was not satisfied about the outcome of the 2016 MMFF, particularly the box-office results.