2013 Sineng Pambansa and CineFilipino: Lessons and Realizations

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

September 2013 marked a milestone in Philippine Cinema and a celebration for all Pinoy cineastes. Besides a handful of well-made films that finally got their commercial run (notably Erik Matti’s On The Job, which was exhibited in the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes International Film Festival, Transit and Sana Dati, both big winners at Cinamalaya), a score of celluloid offerings were screened as part of two film festivals: Sineng Pambansa National Film Festival and CineFilipino Film Festival.

Two festivals of national scope staged for one week each, one after the other. Both fledgling. The former

is dubbed as the “All-Masters Edition” of the flagship project of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in cooperation with SM Cinemas, whose theaters in Metro Manila and selected provinces served as the screening venues for the 10 feature films that formed part of the fest. The latter was mounted by PLDT Smart Foundation, TV 5, MediaQuest, Unitel and Optima Digital, with 8 features and 10 shorts that were exhibited in four locations: Resorts World Manila, Lucky Chinatown, Gateway Cineplex and EDSA Shangri-La. While the former boasted films made by some of the country’s veteran directors, the latter featured works by mostly newbie filmmakers.

Days after the combined two-week run of the festivals, ticket sales reveal lukewarm attendance from the movie-going public. Press releases claim many CineFilipino screenings were well attended. This may be true. But with only 3 venues that committed 1 theater each, plus 1 venue that played for only two days, a feature film had only 10 screenings, more or less, for the event’s entire run, which was more than enough to accommodate interested viewers. Ang Kwento Ni Mabuti, the festival’s top grosser that grossed north of 300,000 (Source: Todo! Entertainment), clinched an extended one-week run in two cinemas, which then failed to draw enough crowd to fill even a quarter of the seats (I watched it on the evening of its eight day, meaning first day of its extended showing, and the crowd was less than 20).

The Sineng Pambansa entries did relatively better, with Lihis, Sonata, and Otso as top grossers that earned 2.3 million, 600,000 and 570,000 respectively (Source:  Showbiz Portal). But taking into account that the films were megged by big-named directors, the tickets were priced at 100 and the fact that SM devoted, where possible, all its cinemas in the metro and nearby areas to the festival entries, the revenue should have been way higher. A regular Star Cinema flick can easily gross 50 million, while a huge box-office hit can gross upwards of 100 to 200 million, even 300 million.

Measured against unwritten box-office standards, the festivals are considered big flops, at least in terms of attendance and box-office results. Be that as it may, the experience has yielded some lessons and realizations, most especially for the festival organizers.

Cinemalaya is the country’s premier festival, and will be for many years to come

Cinemalaya, despite initial struggles, has evolved to become the one and the only film festival to beat. Through the years, it has elevated the status of Philippine Cinema, here and in the international scene. It has created a brand for itself. Cinamalaya is now almost synonymous to quality indie films. Its reputation is evidenced by the sold-out screenings, notwithstanding the 180 ticket price, for most of its films in several venues, many of which end up acquiring commercial bookings.

If other festivals were to follow suit and aspire to rival Cinamalaya, they have to do what Cinemalaya does, if not do it better.

Market saturation

Perhaps Cinamalaya has saturated the space for quality independent productions. Perhaps there’s only a certain peak, a certain number for quality films, beyond which surplus production will kill the market. Law of supply and demand. There’s only a certain quantity of films that a cineaste can see, much less a regular moviegoer. A cinephile, even if he wants to catch all films, can only watch half of them, due to time and budget constraints. A curious person or a moviegoer perhaps will watch one or two.

There are just too many to watch. And to have two festivals in two consecutive weeks is just overwhelming. Nobody can possibly watch every single title without compromising appreciation and criticism.

Quality, Not Quantity

A festival should endeavor to come up with a quality lineup. Sineng Pambansa, for instance, should have fielded less than 10 films, because almost half of the entries are underwhelming and some even had delayed screenings. A certain number of cinemas should have sufficed instead of all SM cinemas available.

Question of Public Readiness

Are Filipinos ready for a barrage of “quality” films? Or do they still prefer mainstream flicks that are of the comedy, sex-themed, melodrama variety, and they will just allow themselves to watch a few quality films that they deem worth watching? Or the bigger question is, do they favor Hollywood movies, that’s why they don’t even have time for quality Pinoy films?

New festivals will come and go if there are no audiences for new waves of indie-spirited filmmakers.

Business Model

New and upcoming festivals should realize that Cinamalaya was co-founded by big business and has, from the very start, been driven by a business model. Therefore, FDCP should partner with a group that will take care of the business side of things. As for CineFilipino, perhaps its organizers, some of whom are businessmen themselves, should come up with a more viable business platform.

Promotion/Publicity

Some cite lack of promotion and publicity for the festivals’ dismal performance. Perhaps, yes. Cinemalaya sure had its fair share of that when it was just starting, but the quality of its lineups made people notice. Word of mouth was instrumental in its success. But, yes, promotion is important. For one, Sineng Pambansa doesn’t have a Web site of its own, and the FDCP site doesn’t even have a page allocated for this year’s program.

Experience doesn’t necessarily translate to success

The Sineng Pambansa entries are products of veteran directors, but they are all flops and half of them are subpar in quality. Clearly, this is an indication that Philippine Cinema cannot rely on the old players, many of whom are still mainstream in thinking and orientation.

New Wave of Filmmakers

This is an era for new waves of talented filmmakers that will chart new trails for the industry. And festivals are good venues to showcase works by these dedicated new players, commingling with a select group of old masters committed to furthering the cause of quality filmmaking. Sineng Pambansa and CineFilipino, guided by learnings from their experiences, could help uplift the industry. And they can only do that if their next presentations will be better and more streamlined that will hopefully draw more people to the cinemas. Because no amount of quality filmmaking would be successful if only a handful of individuals were interested and willing to see it.


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Sineng Pambansa 2013: Veterans, politics, sex (Part 1) 

REVIEW - Sineng Pambansa 2013: ‘Badil,’ ‘Sonata,’ & ‘Ano ang Kulay…?’ (Part 2)