Award-winning indies to be showcased at PPP
Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chair Liza Diño expressed excitement over the weeklong run of Pista Ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP) on Aug. 15 to Aug. 21.
“I am so excited for this because all (the people behind) entries are aggressive in promoting their respective films,” shared Liza. “They have their own marketing and promotions plan. They have their own promo and they really are visible everywhere, always promoting their films. So, I’m expecting a much bigger turnout this year.”
Eight films were chosen as official entries to this year’s PPP and they will be screened in theaters nationwide. They are Ang Babaeng Allergic sa Wifi, Signal Rock, Unli Life, The Day After Valentine’s, Bakwit Boys, Madilim Ang Gabi, Pinay Beauty and We Will Not Die Tonight.
Apart from the said films, Liza also appeals to the public to also show support to six award-winning independent films to be showcased under the Special Features Section. Liza said that through PPP, the indie films that already participated in different filmfests and received numerous recognitions from various award-giving bodies will have the opportunity to attract as many moviegoers as possible to watch stories that tackle subjects far from the usual and are done in a quite extraordinary approach.
“Indie film festivals have been around for 15 years now so I’m sure they have nurtured the audience to watch these kinds of films and (on our part) we’re just giving them a wider audience and (opportunity) to gain new audiences.”
The six indies that comprised the line-up are Balangiga: The Howling of Wilderness (QCinema 2017), Gusto
Kita with All My Hypothala
mus (2018 CineFilipino Film Festival), High Tide (2017 ToFarm Film Festival), Kiko
Boksingero (2017 Cinemalaya), Paki (2017 Cinema One Originals) and Tu Pug Imatuy (2017 Sinag Maynila). All films – mainstream and indies – will share the same screening dates but the latter are confined to Metro Manila cinemas only. Reason: Provincial malls have a limited number of cinemas.
“PPP is an industry event. Normally, a film festival blocks the cinemas or nir
erentahan sila. Eto, we get the cinemas to agree that they will showcase these Filipino titles without a competition na foreign films so ‘yun
pa lang, it means (PPP) is really for the filmmakers to make money. FDCP will not earn anything from it. We are here to make arrangements with the cinemas.”
Liza added that cinemas gave them a guaranteed slot of three days for each film. “It will be pulled out after three days if a film doesn’t make enough.”
Liza hopes PPP will help boost the moviemaking industry. “Yes, it’s another platform. What we need right now are platforms like this because we are aware how unstable and unpredictable the behavior of the audiences is when it comes to (movie) watching in cinemas because of the many platforms like Netflix so we have to rally to make them go back to cinema.”
(The Special Feature Section will be screened at SM North Edsa, SM Megamall, SM Mall of Asia, SM Manila, SM Fairview, SM Sta. Mesa, Gateway Cineplex and Robinsons Galleria. It will also be shown in such schools as Unibersidad de Manila, Aug. 8; Asia Pacific Film Institute, Aug. 9; Adamson University, Aug. 10; Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina, Aug. 13; and Mapua University, Aug. 14.)