The 28th Metro Manila Film Festival was held in Manila, Philippines from December 25, 2002, to January 10, 2003. Two significant changes to the festival began with this edition: the festival became nationwide in scope, and its duration lasted two weeks instead of ten days.[1]
| 2002 Metro Manila Film Festival | |
|---|---|
| Date | December 25, 2002 to January 10, 2003 |
| Site | Manila |
| Highlights | |
| Best Picture | Mano Po |
| Most awards | Mano Po (12) |
| Television coverage | |
| Network | RPN |
Regal Films' Mano Po received the most number of awards out of the nine entries with a total of twelve awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Eddie Garcia), Best Actress (Ara Mina), Best Supporting Actress (Kris Aquino), and Best Director (Joel Lamangan). The film is also the recipient of the Gatpuno Antonio J. Villegas Cultural Awards.[2]
Entries
editThere are two batches of films in competition, the first batch was shown from December 25, while the second batch was shown on January 1, 2003.
Winners and nominees
editAwards
editWinners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.[3]
Multiple awards
edit| Awards | Film |
|---|---|
| 12 | Mano Po |
| 3 | Dekada '70 |
| Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut |
Ceremony information
editDuring the "Gabi ng Parangal" held in PICC on December 27, there were some controversies:[4][5]
Walking out of Dekada '70 cast
editThe cast of the film Dekada '70 walked out of the award ceremonies after Lualhati Bautista failed to win the Best Story and Best Screenplay awards. Even more controversial was the decision of the judges to name the first-timer Ara Mina the Best Actress for her role in Mano Po, beating multi-awarded Vilma Santos, who was in Dekada '70.
Inclusion of two films
editThe producers of the films Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut and Lastikman protested the non-inclusion of the two films as official entries, prompting the Metro Manila Film Festival committee to extend the annual event. Consequently, the committee extended the film screenings to seven days to accommodate two more films which did not make it to the entries.
Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut issues
editChito Roño, director of Second Best Picture Dekada '70, was curious as to why Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut was named the Third Best Picture award if the officials disqualified it as an official entry. In the same way, the production team of Ang Agimat: Anting-Anting ni Lolo was also appalled to the decision of the jurors to give the Best Visual Effects award to Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut if they only use "mono", beating their use of the more advanced "Dolby Digital System".[6]
Box office gross
editFinal figures as of January 10, 2003.[7][8]
| Entry | Gross Ticket Sales |
|---|---|
| Mano Po | ₱67,220,645.40* |
| Lastikman | ₱59,107,245.90 |
| Ang Agimat: Anting-Anting ni Lolo | ₱46,528,274.28 |
| Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut | ₱39,941,856.68 |
| Dekada '70 | ₱37,945,673.25 |
| Home Along da Riber | ₱28,143,340.90 |
| Ang Alamat ng Lawin | ₱20,453,252.95 |
| Hula Mo... Huli Ko | ₱10,334,808.45 |
| Lapu-Lapu | ₱5,686,715.90 |
TOTAL | ₱315,361,813.71 |
References
edit- ^ Salterio, Leah (December 12, 2002). "Fernando Poe Jr. up against Dolphy for the first time". Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc. p. A25. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
- ^ "THE 2002 METRO MANILA FILM FESTIVAL: "MANO PO" BEST PICTURE". Video 48. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
- ^ "Metro Manila Film Festival: Awards for 2002". Internet Movie Database.
- ^ "Through the years: Controversies in the MMFF" Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine. Business World Online. Retrieved 2014-04-09.
- ^ "A look at the past MMFF controversies". ABS-CBN. Retrieved 2014-04-19.
- ^ Lo, Ricky. "Filmfest: The night of the young blood". The Philippine Star. December 29, 2002. Newspaper Print.
- ^ Marinel R. Cruz (January 14, 2003). "2002 MMFF: Most successful in box office returns". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
- ^ "'Mano Po,' 'Lastikman' top MMFF final tally". Filipino Reporter. January 23, 2003. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2015.