Honor Thy Father has been disqualified from the best picture race of the Metro Manila Film Festival.
The reason? “Due to your non-disclosure of your participation to the Cinema One Originals Festival 2015 as the opening film,” said MMFF overall chairman Emerson Carlos in a letter addressed to HTF producer Ronald Stephen Monteverede.
“After careful and thorough deliberation, the Metro Manila Film Festival Executive Committee has disqualified your entry, Honor Thy Father, from the selection of the Best Picture Category of the MMFF 2015 Awards,” he added.
But documents shared with Coconuts Manila shows that MMFF was indeed aware that the film opened the Cinema One Festival as an invitation-only, non-revenue event.
Honor Thy Father was a last-minute addition to MMFF after director Gil Portes’ pulled out his historical biopic Hermano Puli due to funding problems.
Honor Thy Father, directed by Erik Matti with a script by Michiko Yamamoto, stars John Lloyd Cruz in a serious role. He had to shave his head, learn how to shoot a gun and weld for his role of Edgar, padre de familia of a family trying to survive after the collapse of their investment business.
Read our interview with John Lloyd Cruz
Despite receiving rave reviews, the movie has been pulled out of some cinemas in favor of other MMFF entries.
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