Country’s hope pinned on Brillante

Since the Oscars started giving an award for Best Foreign Language Film (BFLF) in 1945, dozens of Asian countries (the Philippines included) have submitted films but, so far, only five have bagged the award that has proved elusive to the Philippines, four of them from Japan — to wit: Rashomon directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1951; Gate of Hell by Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1954; The Legend of Samurai by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1955; and Departures by Yojiro Takita, 2008, all from Japan; and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee, 2000, Taiwan.

With world-renowned Brillante Mendoza’s Ma’Rosa that won for Jaclyn Jose the Philippines’ first Best Actress award at the 2016 Cannes International Film Festival (CIFF) as the country’s official submission, beating seven other shortlisted films, will the Philippines finally join the ranks of Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film?

Lav Diaz with his Golden Lion Best Film award for Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left) at the just-concluded Venice International Film Festival (VIFF).

According to those in the know, films that win awards in Cannes, and in Berlin and Venice, the world’s two other most important and most prestigious film festivals, are considered to have “an edge” over entries as proven by previous winners that went on to bag awards in the Oscars. (Lav Diaz’s Ang Babaeng Humayo [The Woman Who Left] scored a “first” for the country by winning Best Film in the recent Venice International Film Festival but missed a chance to proceed to the Oscars perhaps due to time constraints. Beside, each country is allowed to submit only one entry.)

Director Gil M. Portes, whose film Hermano Puli (starting Aljur Abrenica and showing nationwide starting on Wednesday, Sept. 21) was among the “eight shortlisted films,” is an Oscar “veteran” having submitted three films for consideration in the BFLF category so he knows more or less the ins and outs of the competition.

Gil M. Portes, director of Hermano Puli, one of the eight films shortlisted for submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of next year’s Oscars

“You must have a lot of money for the movie’s promotion and publicity,” said Gil, “including having 5,000 DVD copies of your movie for distribution among the voting members of the AMPAS (Association of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences). It helps if you place ads in magazines (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, etc.). During our time, all we had was $30,000 (roughly P1.5 million) which was a measly budget.”

Here’s some kind of a primer (culled from research) about the Best Foreign Language Film competition:

The Academy defines a foreign-language film as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. Films that meet these criteria are eligible for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. They can be nominated for awards in categories other than Best Foreign Language provided that they have been commercially released in Los Angeles County and comply with the special rules governing these categories. In addition, foreign-language films produced in the United States are not eligible for Best Foreign Language Film but are eligible for awards in other categories.

Every country is invited to submit what it considers its best film to the Academy. The designation of each country’s official submission has to be done by an organization, jury or committee composed of people from the film industry whose members’ names must be sent to the Academy. Only one film is accepted from each country. After each country has designated its official entry, English-subtitled copies of all submitted films are shipped to the Academy where they are screened by the designated Best Foreign Language Film Award Committee(s) whose members select by secret ballot the five official nominations. Final voting for the winner is restricted to active and life Academy members who have attended exhibition of all five nominated films. Members who have watched the Foreign Language Film entries only on video or DVD are ineligible to vote.

Incidentally, as far as funding for Ma’Rosa…that is, if and when it makes it to the finals…may not pose a problem to Mendoza. Ma’Rosa’s distributor around the world is Film Production, the same company behind Son of Saul that won Best Foreign Language Film last year.

That could be a plus factor for Mendoza.

“Finally,” said Mendoza, “after 10 years, I am recognized.” 

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