DAYO at the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival

DAYO at the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival It's official! After much deliberation, the MMFF Executive Committee had chosen DAYO as one of the 8 entries of the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival. The announcement was made by Atty. Espiridion Laxa at the presscon held at the MMDA office earlier today. Laxa mentioned that the primary considerations for the selection were commercial viability and the ability of the producers to finish the film in time for the festival. The announcement was made in alphabetical order and DAYO was the 2nd one mentioned. It will be the 2nd time that a full-length animated film will be featured in the film fest, after Ibong Adarna which was shown back in December 1997. The road to the film fest did not come easy for DAYO. Despite the fact that Cuttingedge was the 1st one to submit the requirements, the committee initially did not allow the submission because there was no category for an animated film in the festival. It was only after an executive committee decision that they allowed the producers to submit. The committee even requested for the financial statement of first-time producer CuttingEdge Productions to validate their capability to finish the project. Then came the selection. 12 entries were officially entered for the 8 slots alloted by the committee. Unlike previous festivals where screening was done in 2 batches (6 on the 1st week, then the other 3 replaces the non-performing films on the 2nd week), this year's festival will screen all 8 film simultaneously. After the 7 slots were given to festival staples, it became a toss-up between DAYO and another film. Deliberations went on 'till late Sunday evening, and after much debate, the last slot was finally given to DAYO. With this development, December 25, 2008 will mark a milestone in Philippine cinema as first-time producers CuttingEdge Productions debuts the country's 1st fully-digital (paperless) animated feature film in the 34th Metro Manila Film Festival, a festival dominated by industry goliaths. Aside from being the only animated entry, DAYO is the only kid-oriented comedy-adventure movie in the roster. Despite producing the film with very limited resources, the makers of DAYO vowed to come up with a product that adheres to global standards in animation and filmmaking. Indicative of this is the fact that the screenplay written by Eric Cabahug and Temi Abad passed the film fest committee's evaluation standards for international appeal for the film's showcase of Filipino culture, values and creativity. Keeping up with the global standards, the film will be scored with a full orchestra while the theme song will be sung by Lea Salonga. CuttingEdge Productions also invested heavily on the latest in animation technology and put a world-class team together to realize this dream. It is also worth mentioning that DAYO aims to jumpstart the Filipinos' bid to become acknowledged global animation content providers. In line with the Animation Council of the Philippines' thrust to produce more original content, CuttingEdge started pre-production for DAYO in early 2007. Full production started in October 2007 while completion is targeted in November 2008. It is a herculean undertaking, but as executive producer Jessie Lasaten likes to put it, "Kayang lumipad ng Pinoy". DAYO is directed by Robert Quilao.