MMFF rule to submit finished film instead of script is wrong, says Vic Sotto

Well, that’s a delayed reaction!

Two months after the newly-formed Metro Manila Film Festival Committee’s ruling that changes the way all MMFF entries will be selected, actor Vic Sotto says the people who made those decisions had the right intention but chose the wrong course of action.

In April, the committee said that producers who want to be part of the annual Christmas-timed festival, which traces its history to 1975, will have to submit finished films by September.

Previously, entries were selected based on screenplays, though this never prevented producers from submitting finished products that were totally different from what had been approved.

Sotto argues that producers with less budget to finish a full-length film in a few months will be greatly affected by the new MMFF rule. That includes him, and that’s why he won’t be joining this year’s festival.

Yes, people, Bossing ain’t got no time for shit like that.

Instead of amending the selection rules, the new committee should have fixed the judging process instead, because that’s where the problem lies, he told Pep.ph.

Sotto also pointed out that MMFF movies need to be commercially viable because the festival is meant to be a fundraising initiative.

(We don’t know where he was in 2010, when commercial viability as a criterion for selecting the Best Picture winnner was removed by then MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino.)

In any case, Sotto has an idea for the new MMFF executive committee: If they want movies worthy of screening in international festivals, they can go ahead and create their own festival.

Oh, snap!