Portes on the ‘rocky’ road to the Oscars

Been there, done that.

That must be director Gil M. Portes’ reaction to the announcement that the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) has chosen Transit as the country’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category of next year’s Oscars.

You see, Gil has three of his movies entered in the same category at the Oscars, so he’s kind of a veteran in the game who knows the ABC’s, and the ins and outs of how to catch the attention of the Oscar voters. 

Transit was chosen by a FAP selection committee composed of directors Peque Gallaga, Elwood Perez, William Mayo and Gina Alajar; actor Robert Arevalo; scriptwriter Joe Carreon; and editor Jess Navarro. Produced by Paul Soriano and directed by Hannah Espia, Transit is about a Filipino family working in Tel Aviv after the Israeli government passed a law ordering overseas workers’ children below five years old to be deported to their home countries. The movie won 10 awards at the recent Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival including Best Director for Hannah and Best Supporting Actress for Jasmine Curtis-Smith. Transit beat other nominees like Brillante Mendoza’s Thy Womb, Jeffrey Jeturian’s Ekstra, Erik Matti’s OTJ (On The Job) and El Presidente.

“Now the hard work begins,” Paul was quoted as saying.

To that, Gil could only nod, “You can say that again!”

Gil’s first entry was Saranggola in 1999, followed by Gatas in 2001 and Mga Munting Tinig a few years later. Usually, the number of films “submitted for consideration” to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Oscars is more than 60 which is winnowed down to the Top 10 semi-finalists until only five are chosen for the main competition.

“Of my three films,” said Gil, “the most successful was Mga Munting Tinig because it landed in the Top 10,” so far the highest honor achieved by the Philippines since time immemorial when we started submitting entries to the Oscars. If memory serves, I think Jun Lana’s Bwakaw (about an aging gay played by Eddie Garcia) made it to the Top 12 in last year’s competition among around 67 films submitted by the same number of countries. Tikoy Aguiluz’s Segurista reportedly also got a high score.

“I say that Mga Munting Tinig, with Alessandra de Rossi as a teacher in a small village, was the most successful because it didn’t only make it  to the Top 10,” added Gil, “it was also bought by Warner Bros. which retitled it Small Voices for world distribution.”

The road to the Oscars is, as far as a third-country like the Philippines is concerned, described as “rocky” because of the logistics involved in promoting and marketing an entry.

“There are 5,000 members of AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) which is behind the Oscars and only 500 of them are voting members,” continued Gil. “You don’t know who the 500 are, so to make sure that they are able to watch your film, the best chance is to provide all or as many of the 5,000 members DVD copies. That’s expensive!”

One of the members, though not clear if she’s a voting one, is Dolores Hart who left Hollywood when she was on the brink of stardom and became a nun. Every year, she gets copies of the Oscar-nominated films to review.

Openly campaigning for the Oscars is a common practice in Hollywood. Producers put out ads in newspapers and magazine (Hollywood Reporter, Variety, etc.) to drum up interest for their entries. “And it’s very expensive,” stressed Gil. “Because we were financially-challenged, we found ways to promote my films. Luckily for Munting Tinig, there was this Filipino guy aspiring to be a Hollywood PRO who needed a break. He approached us, ‘Can we promote your film, gratis et amore? Of course, we agreed. Otherwise, we would have to shell out around $40,000 (roughly P2M).”

Gil cited the case of Ploning, starring Judy Ann Santos, which was submitted for the same Oscars race a few years ago.

“At that time,” disclosed Gil, “the producer and director of Ploning asked for my advice. I told them to get the services of the same guy who helped us. But I doubted if they heeded my advice, maybe because they were able to raise fund…I don’t know how much…which was I guess not enough. They decided to do it on their own yata. Judy Ann helped them by asking for contributions (Sharon Cuneta was among the donors).

“The Filipino guy who helped us volunteered to also help the Ploning team but I don’t know what happened. So the Filipino guy instead helped promote the Argentinian film and it won Best Foreign Film,” adding, “I have our kababayan to thank for helping us, too. They hosted dinners to promote Munting Tinig.”

What’s also important, according to Gil, is to have your film shown at the Palm Spring Film Festival (California), along with the Oscar semi-finalists. “Many of the Oscar voters go to Palm Spring during winter kasi medyo mainit doon and that’s where they watch the films,” said Gil. “You also have to tap the help of radio programs and every possible outlet that can promote your films. Sadly, Munting Tinig didn’t make it to the Top 5 because we lacked money for further promo. You don’t stop the effort even up to the night of the Oscars.”

All in all, estimated Gil, you have to prepare tens of thousands of dollars for the promo.

“For Saranggola, all we had was $30,000, which was too small. But it was considered a semi-finalist because it was invited for exhibition at Palm Spring. It was also at Palm Spring where Munting Tinig tied for the Audience’s Choice Award with the German film No World in Africa and that German film eventually won Best Foreign Language Film. Can you imagine that!”

Well, according to Gil, it was a learning experience although a very, very expensive one.

Maybe Paul Soriano and company can learn a lot form that experience.

Akapela entries submission extended to Sept. 28

Here’s good new for those who haven’t submitted their entries to Ryan Cayabyab’s Akapela Open contest: The deadline was extended from Sept. 7 to Sept. 28.

Akapela Open is a competition for contemporary a cappella ensemble singing. It’s a project spearheaded by The Music School of Ryan Cayabyab in cooperation with the PLDT Smart Foundation and One Meralco Foundation.

Qualified to join are singing groups with a minimum of three and a maximum of 12 members aged 18 and above upon filing of application form. Groups may be all male, all female or mixed voices.

Only pop, R&B, hip-hop and rap, rock, folk and popular type a cappella arrangements of songs from various genres can be performed in the competition. Stage movement/choreography is encouraged. Original a cappella arrangements made specially for the group are required.

Auditions will be done through 1) video performance auditions; and if shortlisted, 2) live performance auditions.

For more information, log on to the officials website of Akapela Open: www.akapela.com.

Winners will receive cash and trophy — grand prize is P250,000, first runner-up P150,000, second runner-up P100,000 and P50,000 special award for best a cappella arrangement of a Filipino song.

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