Metro Manila Rematch?

While indie eyes are on the line-up for Cinemalaya (post below) some of the movies competing in the 2007 Metro Manila Film Festival have been chosen and there's potential for a repeat of the controversy that coloured last year's event, when Star Cinema's wedding rom-com Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo (check out the site, where you can download some fetching wallpaper) lost out on the Best Picture award to OctoArts' kiddie fantasy adventure sequel Enteng Kabisote 3, or to use the full title (and why wouldn't you want to), Enteng Kabisote 3: Okay Ka Fairy Ko... The Legend Goes On and On (which stole a march on the recent glut of threequels by a full six months).

The Metro Manila Film Fest is something of a one of a kind event in world cinema, and bears little resemblance to what most people usually think of as a film festival. Taking place over the Christmas holiday period every year, most movie houses in the metropolitan area are blocked out to exclusively show the ten competing movies, which are chosen to receive funding before any shooting commences, and are often rushed through production and post-production in the months leading up to the event. A real movie institution in Manila (2007 marks the 33rd edition) it's very much a commercial endeavour, largely involving the big local studios, and standing in stark contrast to the independent ethic of relative newcomers on the Manila movie scene such as Cinemalaya. All the populist genres of Philippine cinema pop up at the MMFF, from slushy love stories to superhero flicks (such as last year's Supernoypi), to fantasy adventures like the Enteng Kabisote series, bird-people hokum Mulawin, or Erik Matti's Exodus (MMFF 2005), to melodramatic sagas such as Chinese-Filipino movie soap opera series Mano Po, the fifth installment of which graced the MMFF 2006, and is one of several recurring franchises. Often star- rather than director-led, the entries square up at the box office over the course of the festival and, with the criteria for Best Picture 40% box office take, the most commercially successful movie often takes top honours.

Things got a bit tasty last year however, when Enteng Kabisote 3 was awarded Best Picture, despite Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo's higher BO gross. Star Cinema, the studio behind the latter, lodged a complaint with the MMFF, tempers flared, and the incident triggered a lot of journalist ink, threatening to undermine public faith in the event.

Just as the storm has died down, it now seems that the two movie sequels are set to compete head to head in the next festival, Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo's rom-com sequel Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo (I sense a pattern emerging here) facing off against Enteng Kabisote 4, raising concerns about the spat blowing up all over again. Perhaps then it would be better if one of the other entries mounts a box office challenge this year - step forward sci-fi flick Resiklo, dramas Bahay Kubo and Katas ng Saudi and, best of all, Shake Rattle and Roll 9, the latest in what must be one of the longest running horror compilation franchises in the world...

See more on the controversy over at the Philippine Inquirer.

Read the Firecracker article on Metro Manila Film Festival 2005