The first four MMFF 2017 entries shows how last year's festival failed to impress the mainstream - Opinion Board

Die Beautiful

The MMFF committee has just announced the first four entries to this year's festival and it's a complete reverse of what we've gotten last year.



The four titles are Coco Martin's Ang Panday, The Revengers starring Vice Ganda, Pia Wurtzbach, & Daniel Padilla, Almost is Not Enough which reunites the successful team up of Jennylyn Mercado & Jericho Rosales, and Love Traps #FamilyGoals starring Vic Sotto and Dawn Zulueta. Notice something? Yes, the A-list stars are back with the movies perfectly fit for them.

Why did this happen again? There were no huge buzz from last year's entries (Oro got it late and pulled out from the screens due its controversy). Star power is low. I barely heard of Kabisera. Quality wise, reviews for more 'mainstream' movies Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 2 and Saving Sally were mixed. Sunday Beauty Queen could get huge TV ratings but it's not the type of movie people would rush to see in the screens. And most importantly, Well, the total earnings of MMFF plummeted last year. That pretty sums it up.

Last year's MMFF changed the rules and selected indie-type of movies. That's great. But the marketing from the eight entries seemed mute. I saw rotating Oro TV spots on 2nd Avenue/ETC but it cannot tell you what it sells. The Gabi ng Parangal was shown on a low rated network (and don't get me started on the quality of that show as an awards show on TV). There was also a competition on regional theaters which chose Parental Guardians over the other entries.

You see here in the Philippines, to get a successful movie, you need to put a huge star in a movie with a familiar genre. If not, the actors must have a buzzy performance on the film (which worked on Seklusyon and Die Beautiful). That could work in last year's festival. Put Vilma Santos (sorry Nora Aunor) in a well-reviewed movie and you get PHP 100M+ plus tons of awards. Replace Paolo Ballesteros with Vice Ganda and you get a PHP 200M+ rated-R comedy film (just an example. Die Beautiful worked on its own).

If they want to continue the rules from the 2016 festival, they should not just focus on finding a great film but also for some other factors needed to have a successful movie. But for now, we're back on the old formula. Maybe they'll find the right balance sometime soon. Or maybe these first four films stepped up they're quality (but a hashtag on the title already makes this less possible). We'll see this December...