The 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) is the 41st edition of the annual Metro Manila Film Festival held in Metro Manila and throughout the Philippines. It organized by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA, a government agency. During the festival, no foreign films are shown in Philippine theaters (except

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...

, 4D, and large format 3D theaters). The festival began on December 23, 2015, kicking off with the traditional Parada ng mga Artista (''Parade of the Stars'') float parade from

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in Pasay to Quirino Grandstand in Manila. Showings are from December 25 until January 7. The Gabi ng Parangal (''Awards Night'') was held on December 27 at the

Kia Theatre The New Frontier Theater, known as the Kia Theatre between 2015 and 2018, is a multi-purpose events hall in the Araneta City in Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The theater has a 2,385 seating capacity and is used for a variety of e ...

, Araneta Center, Quezon City, hosted by KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez. Both the Parade of Stars and the Awards Night are aired via delayed telecast on TV5 thru a co-production with Viva Entertainment. Metro Manila Film Festival reported that the total earnings of the festival was 1 billion pesos (Dec. 25-Jan. 6 only). It did not report the earnings for each film. This was the only festival under MMDA chairman

Emerson Carlos Emerson "Murph" S. Carlos is a Filipino lawyer and was the Assistant General Manager for Operations of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) from January 4, 2011, to October 1, 2015. Carlos succeeded Tolentino as the chairperson o ...

Entries

Regular entries

The official list of entries was announced on June 20, 2015. From the 21 submissions, 8 were chosen for the festival.

New Wave entries

Feature films

The New Wave entries were screened on selected cinemas from December 17 to December 24, 2015.

Short films

* ''Daisy'' - Brian Reyes * ''Ding Mangasyas (Tough Guys)'' - Justine Emmanuel Dizon * ''Lapis'' - Maricel Cariaga * ''Momento'' - Kyle Nieva * ''Mumu'' - Che Tagyamon

Animated films

* ''8'' - Johanna Kay Boncodin * ''Buttons''- Marvel Obemio, Francis Ramirez & Jared Garcia * ''Geo'' - John Aurthur Mercader * ''Little Lights'' - Rivelle Mallari * ''Marvino's League of Superheroes'' - Ja Marti Escandor

Awards

Major awards

The following are the winners of the mainstream category:

Other awards

*Plaque of Appreciation –

Francis Tolentino Francis N Tolentino (; is a Filipino politician and lawyer serving as a Senator since 2019. He served as Chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) from 2010 to 2015 and was the Mayor of Tagaytay from 1995 to 2004. For ...

*Male Celebrity of the Night – Cesar Montano *Female Celebrity of the Night – Jennylyn Mercado

New Wave category

The following are the winners of the New Wave category: *Best Picture – ''ARI: My Life with a King'' *Best Director – John Paul Su, ''Toto'' *Best Actor – JM de Guzman, ''Tandem'' & Francisco Guinto, ''ARI: My Life with a King'' *Best Supporting Actor – Thou Reyes, ''Toto'' *Best Supporting Actress – Bibeth Orteza, ''Toto'' *Best Screenplay – Robert Tantingco, ''ARI: My Life with a King'' *Special Jury Prize – ''Toto'' * Manila Bulletin Entertainment Best Picture – ''ARI: My Life with a King'' *Best Short Film – ''Mumu'' by Jean Cheryl Tagyamon *Short Film Special Jury Prize – ''Daisy'' by Brian Reyes * Manila Bulletin Entertainment Best Short Film – ''Momento'' by Jan-Kyle Nieva *Best Animation Film – ''Buttons'' by Marvel Obemio, Francis Ramirez & Jared Garcia *Animation Film Special Jury Prize – ''Lights Lights'' by Rivelle Mallari * Manila Bulletin Entertainment Best Animation Film – ''Geo'' by John Aurthur Mercader

Multiple awards

Mainstream

New Wave

Controversies

Ticket-swapping incidents

Alleged ticket-swapping incidents occurred in some branches of

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during the opening day of the festival. Some moviegoers claimed that they bought tickets for ''My Bebe Love'' but instead, were given tickets for ''Beauty and the Bestie''. SM Cinema confirmed through its Twitter account that this incident occurred in SM City Bacoor. According to SM Cinema, the incident was "a mistake due to high volume of tickets purchased". They also assured the public that this transaction will be counted fairly for the gross sales of ''My Bebe Love''. These tweets were later deleted for unknown reasons. On the other hand, the Metro Manila Film Festival committee released a contrary statement regarding this issue. It is stated that they "strongly denies the existence of such" incident and they called the issue "baseless". The House committee on Metro Manila Development, chaired by Quezon City Representative Winston Castelo, started the probe on the disqualification case of ''Honor Thy Father'' and the ticket-swapping incidents in January 2016.

''Honor Thy Father'' disqualification

On December 26, ''Honor Thy Father'', was disqualified by the Metro Manila Film Festival Executive Committee from the Best Picture category after the film failed to disclose its participation as the opening film of the 2015 Cinema One Originals Film Festival. On the contrary, Dondon Monteverde, the film's producer, revealed that they did disclose this information beforehand. He attested that its premiere at the Cinema One festival didn't generate revenue which complies by the rules. He also questioned the timing of this decision, one day before the awards ceremony, and he demanded an investigation. In an interview dated on November 2, 2015, MMFF Executive Committee member Dominic Du revealed to Philippine Entertainment Portal that the film did comply with the rules as the Cinema One premiere wasn't a commercial screening. On December 28, Laguna Representative Dan Fernandez, who is part of the cast of ''Honor Thy Father'', filed a resolution that directs the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry regarding the disqualification of ''Honor Thy Father''. The committee on Metro Manila Development, chaired by Quezon City Representative Winston Castelo, started the probe on the disqualification case of ''Honor Thy Father'' and the ticket-swapping incidents in January 2016.

Pullout of ''Nilalang'' and ''Honor Thy Father'' from some cinemas

''Nilalang'' director Pedring Lopez and co-producer Wesley Villarica expressed dismay over the pullout of their film and co-entrant film, ''Honor thy Father'' from some cinemas in favor of ''My Bebe Love'' and ''Beauty and the Bestie''. Villarica noted that his film, was shown in 20 cinemas in Metro Manila and 7 theaters outside the metropolis in the opening day on December 25, but by next day less than 20 cinemas are screening his film. ''Honor Thy Father'' writer Michiko Yamamoto said that her film was pulled out from ten theaters the day after the opening day of the festival.

Conflict of interest against Dominic Du

During the House probe on the MMFF irregularities, it was revealed that Dominic Du, a member of MMFF Executive Committee have a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

with the Best Picture winner, ''#Walang Forever'' and 2nd Best Picture winner, ''Buy Now, Die Later''. Dominic Du owns the company, Axinite Digicinema, that helped promote the said two films. He also serves as a legal counsel of Joji Alonso, the producer of both films.

Box Office gross

The Metro Manila Development Authority was criticized for not releasing official earnings of each film. This led to some film studios releasing their own earnings.

References

External links

* {{MMFF Metro Manila Film Festival MMFF MMFF MMFF MMFF MMFF December 2015 events in the Philippines January 2016 events in the Philippines