When I woke up last Monday morning the first thing I did was check to see who had won the Oscars. Had it been televised I probably would’ve stayed up and watched the whole 4hr+ ceremony the way I have in previous years. Trust the one year the Brits actually do really well to be the same year that no one is televising the show this side of the pond.

As predicted, Slumdog Millionaire swept the boards winning eight in total, including two of the big four – Best Picture and Best Director. The other big win coming from one of my favourite people, Kate Winslet, who managed to complete her hat-trick of Golden Globe, BAFTA, and now Oscar. Not to mention the other awards she’s picked up along the way in the last few months.

The Brits were more than happy to celebrate the impressive haul of Oscars. Rightly so. It’s been a long time coming. When Titanic won its 11 Oscars the best Johnny Vaughan could come up with was that if it hadn’t been for us there would’ve been no story. Okay we built the ship, but I’m pretty sure without the iceberg there would’ve been no story. That also being, the same year that four of the five nominees for Best Actress were British and an American still managed to walk away with it.

That’s all in the past now. We’ve got our Oscar success story. We’re probably good for another decade or so. We had My Fair Lady in the 1960s, Gandhi in the 1980s, The English Patient in the 1990s, and now Slumdog. I’m not sure what happened to the 1970s, but I think a lot of people aren’t sure what happened to that decade. Yay for the British film industry!

As a Brit I’m over the moon but as a Filipino I’m left wondering, why the heck haven’t we won an Oscar? Actually, why haven’t we even been nominated for an Oscar? What’s that about? Seriously. It’s not like we don’t make films. In the 1950s the Philippines, along with the US and India, was one of the top film producing countries. We currently have a thriving film industry that turns out hundreds of movies a year. In over 50yrs of film making - where’s our Oscar?

Admittedly, this year we came close. The movie Ploning was short-listed for the Best Foreign Language Film this year. That was as far as it got though despite heavy lobbying from Judy Ann Santos, the movie’s star and co-producer. Other than this, the only international acclaim we’ve managed recently from a film festival anyone’s actually heard of was last year when Serbis competed at the Cannes Film Festival. This was the first Filipino movie to compete at Cannes since 1984.

Is it just that we don’t make very good movies? I don’t think that’s the problem. To even be short-listed there has to have been something the judging panel saw. Plus, I have seen some movies that have had Oscar nominations tied to them that have been less than stellar.

It’s certainly not because we don’t have the talent. With the likes of Piolo Pascual, Claudine Barretto, John Lloyd, and Judy Ann Santos talent is not an issue. But then, what of our talent? Which of our artists have had international acclaim? Lea Salonga comes to mind. If you ask anyone who’s not Filipino who she is though - that isn’t a fan of musical theatre - they wouldn’t have a clue.

Other Asian actors have made their mark on the world. Ken Watanabe – Oscar nominated, Michelle Yeoh – BAFTA nominated, Ziyi Zhang – three Oscar nominations, one Golden Globe nomination, and the sure sign that you are known to the masses – five MTV Award nominations. All of this compared to Lea’s most famous role off stage – the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and Mulan. Well, at least Disney likes her. This is what happens to one of our most versatile and talented artists.

The fact that the rest of the world doesn’t know about the Filipino film industry is one of the main issues we face. I can, and have, watched movies from several Asian countries in cinemas over here. There is always a Bollywood film at the cinema in the Trocadero in the heart of London’s West End. When I worked in a video store, we had a new movie in from countries like South Korea, Japan, even Vietnam, every week. I’d never even heard of Ploning until I was told about it because I was discussing the Oscars with a friend. There’s no chance of my seeing it unless I buy it online.

I can count Yimou Zhang as one of my favourite directors and I can’t even understand the language his films are made in. I wouldn’t be able to even name you a Filipino director without having to look it up first. Ang Lee. Wong Kar Wai. Hayao Miyazaki. Anyone who knows anything about film knows these names. With the exception of Ang Lee, these directors don’t make movies in Hollywood, yet people know who they are.

The other important thing we need to do if we ever want a real chance it to give up the romance movies! I know that’s what we love and don’t get me wrong; some of my favourite movies are romance movies. I count amongst my guilty pleasures The Notebook and Serendipity. I can’t help myself, it’s in my genes! True, sometimes romance works – I mean, look at Titanic, Braveheart, even Shakespeare in Love got Oscars and the Academy doesn’t typically like comedies. However, there was a lot more going on with these movies other than the love story.

Let’s face it; the love stories presented in Filipino movies are fairytales. They almost always end in a happy ending – despite insurmountable odds, or someone dies. I know that Oscar tends to favour the latter, but even when that’s the ending it still seems to somehow end up being a happy ending. I’m not saying that we’ve got to end every movie on a downer, but we do have to make them more real. Or if we are to venture into the almost unbelievable then it needs to have the same magic as movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Amelie.

If we want an Oscar nomination - or any other internationally recognised award, let alone an actual win, something has to be done. We have the means to make really good films. I know; I’ve seen some. We have the storytelling ability, if only we could write the right story. We have the talent to star in them. Once we combine these elements we need to get the world to see our movies and then we’ll have a chance that someone might recognise that we are producing quality movies worthy of recognition.

I realise that even if we were to be nominated the likelihood is that it would be in the Foreign Language category and perhaps only the die hard film buffs would notice; but to have that moment would be something. For now I suppose I’ll have to make do with the British Oscar success and cheer on Kate Winslet. Still I hope that the moment when a Filipino made movie title is at the end of, ‘And the Oscar goes to…’ isn’t just something that would only happen in one of our movies.

Posted on 6 March 2009 by Gemma in Film

Tagged Academy Awards, oscars, ploning the movie