Postscript to the Metro Filmfest

In spite of all the nasty things said about the 28th Metro Manila Film Festival which officially ends tomorrow, I still like to think it was basically a success. However, here are little reminders I’d like to extend to the festival committee so that the same mistakes are not repeated every year:

• Stick to the official number of entries. Is it six, seven or nine? They can’t change the numbers all the time because that will open them to a lot of criticisms and complaints – which was what happened again last December. Good thing for Spirit Warriors and Lastikman, the decision of the Metro Filmfest committee to give these two films the Jan. 1 playdate proved to be a blessing in disguise. Spirit Warriors and especially Lastikman are both doing extremely well at the box-office. I just don’t know how the first seven entries feel about this development.

• Set clearer guidelines on the selection of the final entries. How are the final entries selected? On pure merit or star value? I suspect it’s the latter. And I believe this must have been the reason why Spirit Warriors and Lastikman were relegated to the No. 8 and 9 slots. Spirit Warriors is topbilled by members of the dance group Streetboys who are definitely not big stars. Lastikman’s Vic Sotto may be a major television/film star, but is not in the same superstar league as Fernando Poe, Jr., Dolphy, Vilma Santos, Rudy Fernandez, Bong Revilla and Lito Lapid. Of course, the film entries of most of these superstars are still of festival quality. But the fact that Spirit Warriors, which was not even in the Magic 7, was voted Third Best Picture in the end says a lot. Surely, there must be something wrong in the selection process followed by the festival committee.

• Introduce the members of the selection committee and the board of jurors during the awards night. I don’t know why they stopped this practice of introducing the judges during the early part of the Gabi ng Parangal. I remember that the first time they didn’t introduce the members of the board of jurors was in 1992. The practice was done again in 1993 but was conveniently dropped in the succeeding years.

• Limit the number of nominees. By nominating everyone, the annual awards night of the festival is assured of good star attendance. But by nominating everyone, you take out the thrill from those who truly deserve to be nominated and you lessen the impact and import of the nomination because, well, people will just say, "Everyone gets nominated anyway."

• Take out the best story or revise this category so that a national artist like Nick Joaquin doesn’t have to compete or – worse – lose in a race he didn’t intend to enter. Nick Joaquin lost last year in the Best Story competition after Viva Films turned The Summer Solstice into Tatarin. This year, they had to drag the name and reputation of a dead man into the race – the late Mars Ravelo whose Lastikman was again made into a film by Vic Sotto. This is not fair to Nick Joaquin and Mars Ravelo because they did not write their respective stories originally for film, which is an entirely different medium from literature. Let’s just hope and pray nobody makes a remake of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo because that would put Dr. Jose Rizal in competition with our current crop of screenwriters. I just hope our national hero wins this one or it would be a shame to the entire nation.

• Let the judges classify lead or supporting parts in the acting categories. As far as I know, the festival committee allows the producers to decide where they want their respective stars to compete – either in lead or support. I find this anomalous because the producers – in their desire to get more awards – would tend to spread their stars around so as not to split their votes and thereby increase their chances of winning.

• Hold a lengthy deliberation among the board of jurors. I certainly hope they do this now because during my time, they didn’t. The voting was more like fill up the forms and pass your papers.

• Restudy what the film festival is all about. The festival committee now gauges the success of the filmfest in terms of box office receipts. I think everyone should be reminded that when the late Manila Mayor Antonio Villegas created the film festival in 1966, it was not purely for monetary reasons but to showcase quality Filipino films.