"Ploning" entered in Best Foreign Film Category in 2009 Oscars

GLENDALE - Ploning, a full-feature movie starring Judy Ann Santos and based on a Palawan folk song, is one of the 67 entries in the 2009 Oscars’ best Foreign Films Category. Ploning would have to be included in the top nine entries to be included for screening by the Academy and in the top five in order for its the producers, director and actors to attend the next Oscar Awards on February 22. The Oscars will announce the nominations on January 22.

Ploning was a critically-acclaimed movie when it was released in the Philippines a few months ago. It was written and directed by Dante Nico, 35, and was awarded “most outstanding film” by the Film Academy of the Philippines, chaired by national artist for film Eddie Romero. Ploning, with five other Filipino movies, was entered in a search conducted by a Hollywood screener, and it bested the others to be the official entry in the “Best Foreign Film” category of the 2009 Oscar Awards. It is now arrayed against 67 other entries worldwide.

“Ploning is a nickname inspired by a folksong that originated in the island of Palawan,” says Nico, who was born and raised there. It took two months to film, and it starred young actor Judy Ann Santos, Gina Pareño, Mylene Dizon and Joel Torre. “It’s the first time for Juday to star in a movie without a leading man,” notes Nico. “It is about a young boy who was given 12 hours to stay in the island, and all he could remember is the word Ploning,” Nico added. It was accorded Grade A rating by the Cinema Evaluation Board. “Commercially, it did not make a lot of money,” says Nico, but it was critically-acclaimed. It was rated an excellent movie by 98 per cent of the Philippines’ movie reviewers. Ploning was filmed in 35-mm film stock and had live sound, making it a relatively expensive movie to produce.

“Ang laki ng gastos (logistics cost) dahil some of the actors had to be transported to and from the island during the shooting,” recalls Nico. But the saving grace was that the production was financed by the ABS-CBN television network.

At present, Nico and Guia Gonzales, one of the producers of Panoramanila Pictures Company, are in town raising funds to be used in raising awareness for the movie through local screenings in California and in the East Coast. During last week’s Reflections 20 press conference, one of the awardees, businessman and community leader Mike Cucueco, pledged to sponsor a screening at the legendary Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. “We are also looking for a publicist who can help us promote the movie inside Hollywood, where it needs to be made aware of to the Academy members who would screen and vote on the film,” said Gonzales, an Ateneo de Manila Management of Communications Technology graduate.

“We wish to raise funds to pay for a Hollywood publicist and to have the movie screened in major theaters,” says Gonzales, even as other fund-raising campaigns are being done in the Philippines. Nico and Gonzales are now meeting with local community leaders and some members of the film-making industry. They intend to raise funds by holding house-to-house group screenings with dinners until January 2009.

“Every year, the Philippines is in the field of Oscar competitors, only this year we have a shot at winning,” says Gonzales. “The reason for that is that Ploning was shot in 35-mm film stock and it is a story that has a universal appeal. But if you do not have the machinery the entry can be overlooked,” Gonzales said. “If we can raise enough money, we could send Judai here to promote the movie herself,” said Nico, who graduated from the University of the Philippines with a Theater Arts degree. “I brought this film out aiming for the bulls-eye. It is a long road to the Oscars. If it gets nominated, there will be pressure on me for my next film,” he said,

Nico revealed that his personal goal in making the movie is to preserve the Cuyunon language of Palawan, and he had already achieved that when the Palawan provincial government began using the language in its sessions every Tuesday of the month. The cast of Ploning cast was required to use the language in the movie. (www.asianjournal.com)

(Published October 24, 2008 p.mgzn2 LAMDWK)

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