Avatar, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and 2012 may be the movies currently at the top of most box-office charts the world over. But one place where James Cameron, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Roland Emmerich, and John Cusack don't stand a chance is Manila. At least not in the next week or so.
The capital of the Philippines is now hosting the 2009 Metro Manila Film Festival, which runs until early Jan. 2010. During that period, only the seven movies in competition at the festival — all local Filipino productions with (relatively speaking) sizable budgets and popular appeal — will be screened at Manila's movie houses. Among those are Ang Panday, starring politician-action star Ramon 'Bong' Revilla Jr as the titular hero; the vampire comedy Ang Darling Kong Aswang, with popular Filipino comedian Vic Sotto and Cristine Reyes; and I Love You, Goodbye, a romantic drama with Gabby Concepcion, Angelica Panganiban, Derek Ramsey and Kim Chiu.
Though the actors and the titles may be familiar to Filipino audiences, not everyone is impressed.
"Creatively bankrupt film franchises, aging box-office kings without heir apparent and an awards giving body made superfluous by box office receipts — this is what awaits moviegoers at the 35th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF)," writes the Manila Times Rome Jorge, who then remarks that the popular Shake, Rattle & Roll film series is on its 11th installment since its launch in 1984, Mano Po: A Mother’s Tale is on its sixth since 2002, while the current remake of Ang Panday "is no less than the ninth since its first showing in 1981."
Jorge adds that the Metro Manila festival "is organized and adjudged by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) — a government agency tasked with engineering infrastructure with no artistic credentials." Box-office receipts represent 40 percent of the competition's criteria.
The Metro Manila award winners will be announced on Dec. 28.
No, it's not just that. Due to less availability of Avatar on theaters, aLOT of filipinos instead are just gonna buy CAM COPIES of the movie from stands and unless you know what was Avatar and how it was made, you will very much less appreciate it to watch on TV in a very bad quality material. In short, it's just like throwing Mr. James Cameron's epic work on a garbage.
I'm disappointed myself. With my line of work, we don't get a lot of long days off except during the Holiday Season. We have planned to watch Avatar with my wife but this film fest has ruined it. I also like to support the Filipino movies but I always find foreign movies to be better. Unlike my childhood, I no longer laugh at Filipino jokes in movies, they no longer make sense or appeal to me. I just hope they get these "forced films to watch" out of the cinemas before we resume work on January 4.
Dudes dont worry, the MMFF is just for one week! After that they're going to return Avatar and those other movies you're desperate souls are looking for.
This is so disappointing because they took away Avatar, New Moon, 2012, Sherlock Holmes and all those amazing Hollywood blockbusters with these crappy movies.
Avatar is so goddamn amazing and is a must-watch film from James Cameron, after 14 years of developing it. But was only screened for just a week and alot of people are gonna miss it, they are just going to watch it on TV with a pirated DVD obviously, and it's going to ruin the hard work of the film. As a result, the movie cant be appreciated with a cam copy of the movie.
I was kind of disappointed that they took Avatar out for this. We went all around the Metro and most of the theaters were dead, as in maybe 20-30 people in line. I hope they get back to the regular blockbusters soon!
Cheers!