Ma’ Rosa aims for 2017 Oscars

MANILA, Philippines – Will Ma’ Rosa, for which Jaclyn Jose won for the Philippines its first Best Actress award at the Cannes International Film Festival (CIFF), duplicate that record by bringing home the country’s first major Oscars?

It’s a probability, considering that its director, Brillante “Dante” Mendoza, also won the country’s first Best Director award at Cannes – for Kinatay several years ago.

The Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), the body designated to submit a nominee to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Oscars, announced yesterday that Ma’Rosa was chosen out of eight shortlisted local films as the country’s official entry to next year’s Oscars.

“At last I am recognized after 10 years,” Mendoza told The STAR.

Ma’Rosa was distributed in the international market by Film Distribution, the same company behind Son of Saul which bagged last year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film representing Hungary.

Because of Mendoza’s reputation in the film world as the Philippine director to watch (together with Lav Diaz whose film, Ang Babaeng Humayo [The Woman Who Left], won Golden Lion Best Film at the just-concluded Venice International Film festival, another “first” for the Philippines), Ma’Rosa has a good chance of catching the attention of the 500 members who vote for the Best Foreign Language Film category. AMPAS (Association of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), the body that votes for the winners in the annual Academy Awards, has 5,000 voting members including former actress Dolores Hart who quit showbiz and became a nun (she is given DVD copies of the films for review).

Although several Filipino films have been submitted as entries to the Best Foreign Language Film category, three of them by director Gil M. Portes (Saranggola, Mga Munting Tinig and Gatas sa Dibdib ng Kaaway), not one has made it to the Magic Five finalists.

Will Ma’Rosa finally break the dry spell?