FOR THE LOVE OF THAT LITTLE GOLDEN STATUETTE: THE SEARCH FOR THE PHILIPPINE ENTRY TO THE OSCARS

 Somebody barked in his social media shoutout that throughout the entire history of Philippine movies, we have never been nominated at the Oscars. 

And he is right.

Despite the Avellanas, de Leons, Brockas and Bernals, we have never been cited for any of the categories of the Academy Awards.  Philippine cinema has been around for more than one hundred years --- and the Oscars is ninety-eight years old.  So do the math.  We haven't been as lucky as Vietnam, for instance.  Or Latvia.

But every year we pin our hopes on hope.  Only the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) is recognized and authorized by the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to choose the national representative to the Oscar race for Best International Feature Film.  This used to be called the Best Foreign Film but (I guess) in the spirit of inclusiveness, they rebranded the category all together.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) only provides assistance to FAP in the selection of the official Philippine entry to the Oscars.  The council's biggest contribution is the PhP1M to be used by the chosen film for its publicity and promotions campaign after it has been selected. Despite the amount handed to the producer, this is still glaringly insufficient to fund the entire campaign to be noticed during the period of selecting nominations and eventually votations for the winners of the little golden statuettes.

After all, one million pesos is only equivalent to US$52,234.00.  In the game of campaigns, that is a mere drop in the bucket.

One would recall that last year's Best Picture (Anora) spent more money for promotions than what they invested in shooting and post production.  If I am not mistaken, the film was completed at US$6M but the Oscar campaign and promotions cost US$20M.  

That is HOW Oscar campaigns are built --- used as long-term investments for a film to achieve worldwide distribution and attention.  Visibility, recognizability and accessibility are all needed to even be considered in the shortlist ... much more in the roster of nominees.

The battle for the Best International Film is a dog-eat-dog battle.  

National cinemas battle for the five slots reserved for the final nominees from which the winner will be annointed with that little gold statuette during the awards night.  But then you ask: how important is that win? Aside from the chances of greater worldwide distribution, it is more of the prestige of being branded an Oscar winner that seem to matter most not only for the project but for the country that the film represents.

There are certain exceptions when a film does not only win the Best International Film Award but also bags the jackpot prize of Best Feature Film of the Year:  that has only happened once --- thanks to Bong Joon Ho's Parasite.  But again, be reminded that the resounding victory of this film is the end result of decades-long planning and implementation of a national program designed to push and propagate popular culture ( films, tv series, music, fashion) into profitable soft economy.  Hallyu, the term to describe the pop cult conquest of South Korea in world culture, is a deliberate and successful program supported by both government and private sectors.  It was well planned with short and long term prospects --- and was fully supported by funds.

Thus to aspire for a Filipino film to even be nominated for an Oscar is an uphill battle of pre-planning, strategizing, marketing and monetizing.

The Philippine selection committee is appointed by the FAP: criteria for the selection of the committee are based on the following:

(a) Professional expertise:  requiring at least an 8 year experience in filmmaking, criticism, curation or the academe, identified as a respected personality in the film community.

(b) Diversity and representation: committee members must represent commercial and independent filmmaking as well as that of the knowledge of regions and the gamut of possible narratives to constitute national cinema.

(c) Independence and impartiality

(d) Knowledge of Academy of  Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  (AMPAS) rules

(e) Transparency: FAP will publicly disclose committee membership, selection criteria and a summary of the deliberations and processes without identifying particular votation details

(f) Commitment to evaluation: assurance that all selection committee members have watched all the films under consideration.

There are seven committee members who will watch, evaluate and deliberate on which of the films submitted will be the official Philippine entry to the Oscars.

Among the members, a Chairman will be selected.  The Chairman will conduct and moderate the discussion but will not vote unless there is a tie.

This year's board members have already been selected.  Their names were submitted to the AMPAS for examination and approval.  Together with this, the FAP also sent its criteria for selection.  These include:

(a) Narrative strength: originality, coherence and impact of the film

(b) Artistic merit: technical craftsmanship of the material

(c) Cultural representation: authenticity in reflecting Philippine stories, values or perspectives on issues

(d) International Appeal: potential of the film to resonate with international audiences

(e) Ability to execute a campaign upon selection

This further clarifies that the short list for eventual consideration and examination is through the submission of producers for possible inclusion in the Oscar deliberations.  This is done through the response of producers to an open call made by the FAP inviting producers to submit their films for the selection committee to view and evaluate.  

The FAP can also invite producers to submit their films for consideration.  If the FAP feels that there are certain films not submitted by producers but deserve to be included in the viewing of the Selection Committee, the FAP can reach out to these producers and invite them to submit their entries with the necessary paperwork.

This procedure is followed because of the responsibility of the producer to invest more funds if and when their film is selected: campaigning and marketing the film (as I mentioned earlier) is as important as the aesthetic merits of the material.

Consider the number of foreign films submitted each year for the Academy members to screen and vote on, especially in the International Film criteria.  In order to be noticed, there is a need for a full fledged coordinated and well planned campaign for the title to enter the radar of the Academy voters.

Moreover the importance of international exposure throughout the year gives an advantage to certain films most especially if they have been invited to major film festivals ( Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Toronto, etc.) and win attention during their exhibition or competitive screenings.  Winning awards in these festivals bring familiarity and therefore curiosity for the title, giving an advantage for foreign audiences to want to screen the film ... to affirm the accolades that the movie received.

That is why shortlisted films that have gone through the major festival routes have a built-in advantage of being selected --- most especially if they have already found foreign distributors who could help in the campaign for the final showdown.  Getting a major foreign distributor as well as an international publicist give further traction to the film  to even be screened by the Academy members.  Once selected as a national representative, the game has changed into careful planning and strategic marketing.

You do not and cannot win --- or even be nominated  --- through aesthetics alone. You need a well designed and well-oiled campaign.  And money.

It is but simplistic to think that having a good film and warranting collective praise from the audience are enough to qualify as an Oscar contender.  There is an entire science and business behind all this. A good movie still requires the buzz from the audience, the excitement to cross borders and the energy to sustain and strategize just to be shortlisted in the derby.

Through all the ninety-eight years of the Oscars, only one film of recent note made it close to being shortlisted for the final assessment.  Carl Papa's animated Iti Mapukpukaw (2023) was cited by Variety Magazine as one of the films worth the watch.  And if only for that, we know that we can keep on hoping.

So let's keep on trying as well. 

A TEACHER'S PRIVATE PAIN ON THE DEATH OF HIS STUDENT

 I intended to return to my blog to discuss something else but tonight I find it a need to ventilate whatever it is that I am feeling inside this ancient heart.

It is not easy to be a teacher.  Everyone who has made a life or even dabbled into education realizes that there is truth to the rumor:  you do not get rich teaching.  You spend sleepless hours preparing lectures, checking papers and computing grades with stone-etched deadlines --- but you do not get rich.  

Teaching is not a profession.  It is a vocation .  And in certain semesters/trimesters/quarters, it is an act of self-flagelation.

You never stop learning if you decide to teach.  You ever stop working. 

And the lessons only play a part of being a teacher.  After years of teaching, I have come to realize that the greater part of teaching is you as a teacher.  Students nowadays can get more concise and precise lessons from the internet: YouTube can provide you with all the lessons --- whether conceptual or technical --- if you knew how and what to look for.

But no internet video can duplicate the influence of a teacher.  In the same manner, every class is not a one-way learning process.  The teacher learns as much from his students.  If he does not, then he has fallen short of his mission.  Indeed, it is not the lesson alone that matters --- but the very being of the teacher in what he teaches, what he proposes, what he explains --- that is as important to the students.

And in my years of teaching I have come to realize that there is nothing more gratifying than to see the success that my students garnered.  Nothing fills my heart with more pride than to see the heights that my students climbed --- and how they have affected and even changed the lives of others.  Somehow I feel that somewhere along the way ... a part of me was given to them that mattered in whatever extent.

I have never boasted of the roster of students who once sat in my classroom in De la Salle University but I feel that their names along have scored me terrific points in heaven.  Leila de Lima, Kim Jacinto-Henares, Cesar Purisima, Benhur Abalos --- just to name a few of the countless others who once-upon-a-time had to sit behind a desk and listen to my lectures.

That is also why being a teacher is such a personal thing.  You cannot help it.  There will be some students who will eventually become your kids. Way before, they were your friends --- but nowadays I found out that I am teaching the children of the first batches of students I handled in the late 70s and early 80s.  Those "kids" I had then are now Senior citizens like me : when I get invited to these spur of the moment reunions, I realize just how much the students have played so much a part of my life ... and defined my timeline.

That is why when one of my students leave this life so prematurely ... so unexpectedly I cannot help but feel not only heartbroken. I am devastated.

Late last night I found out that one of the final batch of students I welcomed to the Film Program of the College of Saint Benilde has passed.  I was in complete shock, asking myself how this could have happened.  Earlier today I found out that this was the boy who won a scholarship because of the outstanding work he did in Senior High school and that he was all too eager to be part of the Benildean film community.

The circumstances surrounding his death made it all the more painful --- as it had affected not only his peers and classmates but also his teachers.

Even if I am not close to this young man --- and that our encounters were few and quite some time ago, I am still trying to figure out why this has such an impact on me.  I need not think hard: it is the feeling of disappointment that all that talent, all that enthusiasm has come to an abrupt end.  All the potential, all the promise.

It also makes me wonder why. Or if anybody could have done something to change the sequence of events.  But such thoughts only come as an aftermath.  What is real is what is true: we have lost one of our best students in the Film Program and it is so saddening.

But for a teacher it is not merely the feeling of loss.  It is the pain of losing somebody who was at a time entrusted to you --- someone who hopefully listened to you and you wish you were there for him right to the very end.

Never underestimate the importance a teacher gives his students.  I remember somebody asking me, "You have a chosen a life that deprives you of having children.  Aren't you afraid that there is no one you can leave your legacy?"  I told him, "Are you kidding?  Every fourteen weeks in La Salle, I have twenty to twenty-five even forty children who will bring me in their hearts for the rest of their lives.  I will never run out of legacy."

Not will I ever grow numb with the pain --- when one of my children leave me.