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The 45th edition of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) has
officially concluded the same way the Christmas celebration and holiday season
in the Philippines folded. Despite a rough start caused by the earthquakes in
Mindanao and Typhoon Ursula affecting most of Visayas, the festival turned out
to be as successful as usual though its overall gross is not beyond what the
festival committee has expected.
In a recently held press conference last week, MMFF spokesperson Noel Ferrer
spoke to the media and shared that all the eight movies in the festival have
made an accumulated overall gross of Php955 million across more than 250
cinemas nationwide. These numbers are 4.5% lower than the festival's expected
gross of over Php1 billion, but it is generally fair enough in terms of box
office standards. Based on box-office gross sales, the top four films that
performed well throughout the two-week affair attended by millions of Filipino moviegoers
were the following: Miracle In Cell No. 7 (VIVA Films); The Mall, The Merrier
(Star Cinema); Mission Imposibol: The Don Identity (M-Zet Films/APT Entertainment);
3Pol Trobol: Huli Ka Balbon.
These top films have already extended their showing in local cinemas,
but it would seem that none of them have won any award at all when it comes to
the MMFF Gabi ng Parangal. In fact, the big winners in the awards night go to
Brillante Mendoza's "Mindanao" and "The Write Effect".
"Mindanao" won most of the major awards in the film fest including
Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actor (Allen Dizon), Best Actress (Judy Ann
Santos), Best Child Performer and all the special awards namely Gatpuno J.
Villegas Cultural Award, FPJ Memorial Award and Gender Sensitivity Award while among
the accolades that "The Write Effect" won are Best Screenplay, Best Supporting
Actor (Joel Bascon), Best Supporting Actress (Yeng Constantino) and Best
Original Theme Song.
With MMFF 2019 in the books, Filipino moviegoers should be ready to
make the start of the summer season more enjoyable as the first ever Metro
Manila Summer Film Festival is about to commence and showcase a new variety of
Filipino films for them to indulge on the scorching summer heat. In partnership
with the Cinema Exhibitors Association of the Philippines (CEAP), the first
edition of the MMSFF will be held on April 11-21, 2020 with the parade of stars
taking place three days prior to the festival's opening. On the other hand, the
MMFF is already committed to support one of its entries, "Mindanao",
on various international film festivals in the coming months as well as in the
foreseeable future.
