Metro Manila Summer Film Festival
Metro Manila Summer Film Festival is a proposed film festival to be held annually in Metro Manila, Philippines. The event is a spin-off of the Metro Manila Film Festival which is officially held every December. Like its sister festival, it will exclude foreign films and only show shortlisted entries in digital theaters except IMAX and 4D theaters.
| Location | Metro Manila |
|---|---|
| Awards | Gabi ng Parangal (transl. Awards Night) |
| Language | Filipino |
Background
The Metro Manila Summer Film Festival was intended to be as a "second run" of the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). The summer festival was proposed to start after Black Saturday which usually falls in the summer season of the Philippines while the regular MMFF will continue to start every Christmas Day of the year. A summer iteration of the MMFF was adopted to encourage Filipino filmmakers to create more films. It would not be the first time the MMFF was held "twice a year". During the tenure of Mayors Antonio Villegas of Manila and Joseph Estrada of San Juan, the MMFF was held twice with the first run starting every June 24 or Manila Foundation Day and the second run on December 25.[1]
The summer film festival was a proposal of Senator Bong Go who became a member of the MMFF Executive Committee in 2019. The MMFF Executive Committee adopted Go's proposal and announced the establishment of a summer festival. The first edition was set to be held from April 11 to 21, 2020 but was cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It would be organized in partnership with the Cinema Exhibitors Association of the Philippines.[2] In 2021, the film festival was not held at all due to the pandemic.[3]
Film selection
Films to be screened at the Metro Manila Summer Film Festival will include films that were submitted but not selected as one of the official entries of the regular MMFF of the previous year.[1]
Cancelled 2020 edition
| No. of films | 8 |
|---|---|
| Festival date | April 11 – 21, 2020 (cancelled) |
The 2020 Metro Manila Summer Film Festival was planned to be the first edition of the annual Metro Manila Summer Film Festival. It was to be organized by the MMDA in partnership with the Cinema Exhibitors Association of the Philippines. The film festival would have a theme centered on Pinoy Pride.[4]
Entries
The 2020 Metro Manila Summer Film Festival would have eight entries. The entries would be selected among submitted finished films produced not earlier than January 1, 2020 and films earlier submitted for the 2019 Metro Manila Film Festival finished film competition. Entries were submitted by February 15, 2020 for the full-length films. For the Short Film Competition which was opened to students, the deadline for submission was set on February 28, 2020.[4]
On March 2, the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) Executive Committee announced the eight official entries for these year first ever summer edition of the Metro Manila Film Festival. These eight films were chosen among 24 film submissions. The film festival was originally scheduled from April 11 (Black Saturday) to 21 in cinemas nationwide, however, when the cinemas were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all of the films were either not released or delayed into new dates.[5]
COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation
The inaugural Metro Manila Summer Film Festival was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the community quarantines being imposed over the country.[6] It was originally scheduled to run on April 11 – 21, 2020. The Parade of Stars was planned to be hosted in Quezon City prior to the run of the film festival and the awards night was set to be held on April 15.[4]
One of its entries, Love the Way U Lie, was released on Netflix on August 20, 2020.[7][8] While the other four entries, Coming Home, Isa Pang Bahaghari, The Missing and Tagpuan would be moved into the list of the entries in that film festival to be held in December.[9] Love or Money was released on March 12, 2021 on KTX.ph, iWantTFC and Sky Cable PPV (supposed to be also available on Cignal PPV, but was pre-empted by the extended availability of Hello Stranger: The Movie).
References
- Adel, Rosette (25 July 2019). "MMFF to hold summer festival next year". Philippine Star. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
- "MMFF to run twice a year starting 2020". Rappler. 26 July 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
- "Summer MMFF still not happening this year amid COVID-19 surge". ABS-CBN News. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
- Parungao, Regina Mae (9 January 2020). "ExeCom announces gross sales of MMFF 2019; details of the summer edition revealed". Manila Bulletin. Archived from the original on 19 July 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- "MMFF 2020 Summer Film Festivals lineup entries announced". CNN Philippines. 2 March 2020. Archived from the original on 19 August 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
- "Summer Metro Manila Film Festival 2020 postponed". Rappler. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
- "'Love the Way You Lie' No. 1 na sa Netflix". Inquirer Bandera.
- "LIST: 15 new Pinoy films to be available on Netflix". Philippine Star.
- "Paulo Avelino's 'Fan Girl' joins 9 other films in 2020 MMFF". ABS–CBN News. 24 November 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
