By NOEL D. FERRER
As the Metro Manila Film Festival lives up to its moniker as the biggest, most anticipated, most popular and most important film festival in the country, we culled out some important lessons learned from the 49th edition which ought to be considered if we are to plan this early for the MMFF Golden Celebration by the year end.
Content is king. Story is priority. Star power is secondary.
Pre-pandemic MMFF highest grossers are usually topbilled by A-list stars doing projects that would appeal to the broadest audiences.
Now, it is a bit more nuanced. Content is of primary importance. Story is king. They drive the audience to the cinemas and back; not just the stars and popular celebrities.
Nadine Lustre edged out Vice Ganda in MMFF 2022 after “Deleter” became Best Picture. “GomBurZa” and “Firefly” edged out entries of the Megastar and Star for All Seasons and even the so-called Asia’s Multi-media Star after the mid-festival awards night.
So do the MMFF awards matter to the audience still? This brings us to our next point.
Awards do matter, but good word of mouth is equally important.
Of late, movies like “Deleter,” “GomBurZa” and “Firefly” gained more viewers after the Gabi Ng Parangal. But the Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes movie “Rewind” would go on earning more hundreds of millions because of good word of mouth. This was also the case of “Miracle In Cell No. 7” of Aga Muhlach which was 2019’s box office champion. We just hope we’ll have more original Filipino narratives that would appeal to wider audiences in the years to come.
Audience will spend wisely.
December 25, Christmas Day is traditionally the highest grossing box office day in the country. It is when Filipino families catch any film that most of its members can watch – usually, the kids have the power to choose which film to view and the elders adjust.
But this year, audience behavior has slightly changed. January 2 earnings surpassed that of Christmas day. And towards the end of the festival run, people just trooped to the cinemas in hordes to have a last chance to catch their favorite films after getting a lot of feedback and reviews.
Unlike before, people just don’t throw away their hard earned money. They are willing to wait to make sure the films they’ll watch are really worth the price!
Creative efforts and hardworking in reaching out to the public matter a lot.
The pandemic has taught us to explore creative ways of promoting the festival and the film entries. For the stars, attending the traditional presscon, TV guestings and the MMFF parade do not suffice anymore.
Visibility is the name of the game. MMDA left no stones unturned when it adorned the whole Metro Manila roads with tarps and billboards of film entries.
It also helped that even the biggest stars like Vilma Santos, Christopher de Leon, Sharon Cuneta, Piolo Pascual, Dingdong, Marian, Alden Richards, Eugene Domingo, Pokwang, Matteo Guidicelli and others and even supporters like Jessica Soho would do theater tours, meet and greet, block screenings and advance ticket selling just to woo the crowds to watching the films.
Social media campaigns and other promo bundles with restos, sponsors and merchandise incentives help. But in the end, the public will just mirror your commitment in promoting your project in exchange for their support.
MMFF is still the most anticipated and viable event for Filipino films
For all it’s worth, controversies and issues notwithstanding , the MMFF is still the most viable event to showcase Filipino films with its lasting impact.
Try showing the films on any other date and it’ll be such a challenge for a producer to market and promote the movies complete with parallel events, ticket and block selling, merch and a lot more!
A lot can still be done. Improving content. Lowering the ticket prices. Continuous education. Institutionalizing feedback, reviews and criticism. Recasting awards. Plus a whole lot more. Thank God, the film industry is vibrant once again.
Like my writing here in Malaya, this is a happy beginning.
