Behind the box office: What influenced MMFF entry 'Fan Girl'

MANILA, Philippines — Award-winning director Antoinette Jadaone revealed that the Metro Manila Film Festival 2020 Best Picture “Fan Girl” was supposed to be a romance film but the country’s political climate has changed since she wrote the film.

In the victory press conference of the film, Antoinette said she began writing the film in 2016.

“It was brought about the political climate that we were in while doing the film. We’ve started doing the film, the development of the film, in 2016. It was a different story then but medyo coming off age na rin pero mas papunta siya ng romance,” Antoinette said.

“But ayon nag-iba yung paligid natin, nag-iba yung Pilipinas from 2016 and parang it’s a natural progression on the script na parang kung si fan girl yung bida namin, dapat yung setting na pelikula magbabago din dahil nagbago yung Pilipinas. Dapat hindi humihiwalay yung setting ng pelikula sa kung ano ang nangyayari sa paligid dahil si fan girl ay don nakatira sa Pilipinas na yon,” she added.

“Fan Girl,” a movie about an obsessed teenager who spent a night with her celebrity idol, won majority of the major awards at the MMFF Gabi ng Parangal on Sunday, including Best Director and Best Screenplay for Antoinette and Best Actor and Best Actress for Paulo Avelino and Charlie Dizon, respectively.

Antoinette said in the same press conference that the movie was really for celebrity fans but evolved for political purposes.

“Para sa lahat ng fans. Hindi naman pag fan ka, fan ka lang ng artista. Pwede kang maging fan ng teacher mo, K-dramas, athletes at lalong lalo na pwede kang maging fan ng mga politiko,” she said.

“What started as just a story of celebrity fan culture, it was actually what we had in mind sa start, yung director statement ko noong 2016 was about celebrity fans lang but later on nag-evolve siya na hindi lang pala to sa entertainment industry natin. Mas about pala siya sa ibang klaseng idolatry,” she added.