I believe that 2012 has been a generous year for local films. More than 5 films crossed the PhP 100M mark. While the film quality can be mediocre to subpar, the fact is that we have a thriving movie industry. Filipinos become more engaged and interested in trooping to the theater.
The Cinemalaya Film Festival also proved to be a success critically and commercially and some films were even shown on a wider release across the country. And these are happening in the year when billion-dollar films The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and Skyfall (USD 920M as of this writing but I expect that it will cross the USD 1-B line) and franchise/sequel films The Hunger Games, Breaking Dawn, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Bourne Legacy, Wrath of the Titans, Madagascar 3, Men in Black 3, Ice Age 4, Journey 2 are dominating the worldwide box-office.
Local films which grossed more than US$ 1M this year are:
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| Box Office Data courtesy of Box Office Mojo |
More and more film festivals are becoming outlets to exhibit even locally (versus nationally) shot films such as the Binisaya Film Festival and the Sineng Pambansa National Film Festival. TV 5 has also come up with CineFilipino. I hope that these film festivals, along with Cinemalaya and the MMFF Indie section, will be the right avenues to screen films based on the rich stories that we Filipinos have. I also hope that MMFF will be more stringent in its requirements rather than be box office-oriented (hahaha).
Lastly, I hope that filmmakers will be more daunting in challenging their audiences' intellect and understanding of life. We pray to the anitos that we will be able to watch films like Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Kubrador, Magnifico, Bwakaw, Ang Nawawala, 100, Jay, or Here Comes the Bride in the future.
We are a country of rich heritage and culture. I don't think that our film industry has only romance and drama to offer to our active moviegoers.
Naks. Charot!
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