2014 Movie Wishes

It's a whole new year for cinema all around. 2013 was a good year for Philippine movies. A LOT of really good films were released this year, and the overall ratio of good to bad films was not really that bad. This years inclusion of three Filipino-oriented stories as entries for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film award tells us of the richness of our country and culture when it comes to storytelling.

For Filipino Cinema:

• I wish for more movies with more creative freedom, and not with stories shackled by budget/producers/whatever. And I'm not talking only about independent cinema here.
• I wish for mainstream films that do not pander or treat its audience like idiots; a film that respects its audience and challenges them
• I wish for audiences to keep their heads out of their asses and realize that they deserve so much more than 2 hour advertisements and the cinematic equivalent of shit.
• I wish for movie makers and audiences to realize that "films for kids" do not mean two hours of inane plotless stupidity. Children have imaginations, let films use them. My best moviegoing experiences as a kid let me use my imagination, why do I have to be served junk like this?
• I wish for no politics in the process of filmmaking. It's art, no one should be allowed to interfere.
• I wish for a true dialogue between filmmakers, critics and audiences on Filipino Cinema, and not one where one side acts all high and mighty ("you don't get what the film is about!"), incomprehensible ("Here's a guy sucking on an orange. It's a film.") or esoteric ("The primary protagonist ensconces his verite-sufferance from the ingenue. Such travesty of thought can only be expressed by the sycophant. Merde! (That's French by the way)")  compared to others.
• I wish people would extend film festival screening dates, because I keep on missing them. :

For Films in General:

• No more fucking blockbusters that exist for the sake of existing, or crappy superhero films that none of us care about.
• That said however, I'd want more fun movies on screen (not necessarily movies that had a lot of explosions and stuff in them.)
• NO MORE ORIGIN STORIES, 80's/90's TV ADAPTATIONS, SEQUELS OR REBOOTS.
• More from-the-ground-up, good concept films.
• Less executive meddling.
• Character development that isn't forced, contrived, or somehow involves rape.
• More kudos from audiences to the documentaries, because some docus are really worth it.

See you bastards at the movies.