Editorial

Graphic Art by The Bedan Herald

Is it really a season to be jolly?

ByThe Bedan Herald  | January 22, 2022

PRE-PANDEMIC times, the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) is one of the highlights of every Filipino family during Christmas time. Aside from the movies and films themselves, MMFF entries are promoted through a parade of giant floats with celebrities flashing their smiles in broad daylight. However, due to the pandemic situation, the industry has never been the same. Though they adapted to an online film festival last 2020, cinemas started opening their doors once again in 2021, but it was not what they expected. Its aftermath, a low turnout of moviegoers despite malls packed with families celebrating the festive season.

MMFF 2021 consisted of eight movies and films: ‘A Hard Day,’ ‘Big Night,’ ‘Huling Ulan sa Tag-Araw,’ ‘Huwag kang Lalabas,’ ‘Kum Maupay Man It Panahon (When the Weather is Fine),’ ‘Love at First Stream,’ ‘Nelia,’ and ‘The Exorsis.’ It stars big names in the industry such as Dingdong Dantes, Kim Chui, John Arcilla, Daniel Padilla, Charo Santos, and the Gonzaga sisters, to name a few. During the awards ceremony, the black comedy, ‘Big Night’ bagged awards such as Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Music Score, Best Actor for Christian Bables, Best Supporting Actor for John Arcilla, and Gender Sensitivity Award. A timely film after the perils of Typhoon Odette was also shown, ‘Kum Maupay Man It Panahon,’ a story of survival during the Supertyphoon Yolanda which already won international awards in Switzerland, Mexico, and United Kingdom.

The line-up consisted of films from different genres and seemingly catering to all age groups or so they thought. When asked, some netizens and those interviewed in the cinemas were looking for child-friendly movies. Unlike before, it is not allowed to eat and drink inside. Therefore, stricter health precautions. Since social distancing is a priority, vacant seats somehow led to pricier tickets. Foreign movies were already being shown to build up traction for people to start watching again, marking the so-called new normal as other countries already opened months before the Philippines did.

The Philippine cinema did its best to build the hype, but other netizens pointed out that maybe one of the reasons for its low turnout is because of the closing of the media giant, ABS-CBN, where trailers can be shown non-stop along with interviews here and there. It was a gateway to disseminate information. After all, their production companies dominated the festival, though it paved the way, also, for independent companies.

How did we go from jam-packed families in ticket booths to Filipinos urging others to support the industry in social media? Was it because our financial priorities have changed? Was it because people now yearn for quality-made films without the recycled plots and degrading humor? Was it because of the uproar of some people about the delayed premiere of a most-awaited Marvel installment? Was it still because of the internal fear of contracting the virus now that the Omicron variant has been detected? No one knows for sure what went wrong or if something went wrong. 

Noel Ferrer, a film producer-manager, shared his sentiments in his Facebook post which read, “Hindi lang ito para sa kabuhayan ng mga tao[,] kun[‘]di ang patuloy na paglikha ng sining sa gitna ng pandemya,” urging the citizens to support the local movies to help revive the Philippine cinema, preserve the art of filmmaking, and help the livelihood of those in the cinema industry, more so, the ones involved behind the scenes. With that, he added, “Sa huli’t huli, sino nga ba ang magtutulungan kun’di tayo tayo rin naman, ‘di ba?” Yet, others also shared that the set-up could have been hybrid since they have already done it last year. People patronize streaming services and are exposed to social media where promotions could have been upped since a broadcasting company was already shut down. In a way, word-of-mouth does not work now as it was before (literally and figuratively). 

Quality-made movies are subjective preferences. Along with it is the personal choice of an individual as to where he/she/they would spend his/her/their money at. Though, the question resides: how can we balance quality films and profitable movies (the ones with big names on them)? There seems to be a formula that only people in the cinema industry can resolve, but because it is to be shown for the masses, there should be a demographic consensus. Before, MMFF’s target audience was the elderly and children but they are the ones at risk now, health-wise, once exposed.

The answer to these rhetorical questions lies within our hands. After all, we are the consumers of the media and the industry delivers what they believe is what we want. They would not spend millions producing a movie with the time, effort, and hard work it comes with from people behind the scenes and the artists only for it to be called a “flop” or “not worth watching.” The subjectivity in art forms varies from one person to another. With the pandemic still going, it is a bigger challenge but they took the risk because they want to entertain and help the industry.

Volume 27 | Issue 4