Erik Matti on 'OTJ The Missing 8' as Oscars entry: Happy but scared
Director Erik Matti is feeling happy but scared over the selection of his film On The Job: The Missing 8 as the Philippines’ official entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards or Oscars.
The announcement was made during the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) closing event for the Philippine Industry Month celebration last month. Incidentally, it also happened around the same time his OTJ: The Missing 8, the mini-series version on HBO, earned a nomination for Best TV Movie or Miniseries at the 50th International Emmy Awards.
“The Oscars, of course, we’re glad we’ve been chosen. I was surprised how many government agencies and industry people gathered together to decide on who will be sent to the Oscars. I found out that there’s FDCP that’s part of the committee, the Film Academy of the Philippines, the DGPI (Directors’ Guild of the Philippines, Inc.), the academe and the critics. There’s also the inter-guild alliance of the industry,” he said during a virtual roundtable interview on Monday.
The stark reality, however, is that the country has been fielding entries to the Oscars for many years now, but no Filipino film has ever been nominated for the category.
“Masaya pero siempre nakakatakot (we’re happy but we also find it scary) because, except for last year, we’ve always fielded titles in the Oscars and we’ve always been excited about sending titles to the Oscars. But we know how difficult it is to be even shortlisted amongst all the countries,” shared Matti.
“The last time I read, 70 countries are already participating. Imagine 70 of those films vying for the attention of the Academy? And you just hope the Academy members get wind of your film, watch it entirely and decide it has merit over South Korea, Hong Kong, Colombia or Chile.
“There are too many films to contend with. All of these films, of course, are the pride and glory of each of those countries, and are as exciting and of value, as all the others. Lahat sila are expecting, ‘Ours is the better one.’”
Despite the scary prospect of not breaking into the official list nominees, Matti and his team are willing to wage a fight. “So, nakakatakot but then (you’re) given two choices. It’s whether to just tell yourself, okay, we’re not going to make it this year again. Or, it’s whether, ‘Let’s try and fight it out.’ Try and find a way to be noticed,” he said.
What they have learned so far is that for a movie to be noticed, the spending of big distribution companies is “anywhere between 50 to 80 million dollars,” which Matti conceded is “nowhere near the fraction of what we can afford.”
That’s why one of the first steps they’ve taken for their Oscars campaign is to not ask for funding, but to tap into the “machinery” and “global clout” of HBO.
“We’re in communication with HBO because HBO is also part-owner of the film version. So with HBO, we’re hoping we could get the North American HBO to support us, leading up to the judging and the viewing,” Matti said.
“Maybe, we’re getting a few screenings in the US to get the film around and invite some Academy members to watch it. We’re hoping for that kind of support from HBO.”
Besides that, they’re also “trying to beef up everything” in the Philippines, including The Missing 8’s first theatrical run in the country come Nov. 2 to 9.
“Because of the pandemic, we haven’t had a theatrical release in the Philippines. Maybe this time around we could show it in the theaters. Of course, the proceeds of that, we will use to send the film abroad, have as many people see it and get the word around. And hopefully, the Academy could see it and fall in love with it,” he added.
Meanwhile, the FDCP is also extending assistance through a P1 million grant. “Which was a surprise,” said Matti of the seed fund to be included in the PR and marketing campaign for The Missing 8.
They are also having talks with groups and individuals for other forms of potential support.
One thing is for sure, a selling point of the film is its narrative about a journalist who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his colleagues, and an inmate who enjoys temporary freedom just to carry out assassinations.
To recall, the film made its world premiere at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival, where it entered the Main Competition for the Golden Lion and received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for John Arcilla.
Matti said, “This is the story of the world, the 2020s. The truth about the attack on journalists, it’s not just happening in our country, it’s happening globally — fake news, disinformation, manipulation of the news about who gets the stronger voice, platform, everything. So we’re using that (to campaign for the film),” Matti said.
He also hopes that the Emmy nomination will help generate buzz for the film. The International Emmy Awards will take place next month in New York City. “I don’t know if the Emmy nomination helps. The Emmys talaga, we never thought we could make it because we made a mistake. We saw the nominations of the US Emmys and we thought yun na yun. Then, we realized there’s the International Emmys which comes out a few months later,” Matti said. “So, when it came out at the same time as the Oscars, we’re hoping the news of the Emmys in the US could get the title, On The Job, on everyone’s radar.”
The six-episode mini-series on HBO was a reworked version that put together the first OTJ film in 2013 and the OTJ: The Missing 8. Over the pandemic, Matti said they opted pivot into converting OTJ and OTJ: The Missing 8 films into “one complete story as a series with both totally different viewing experiences because the other one is episodic, but the other one is you’re really following the case of the Missing 8.”
He further said, “We felt that even with the two formats, magkaiba naman yung feel niya. Of course, because of the format of a series, hindi naman parang in-uproot lang yung On The Job movie and On The Job: The Missing 8 and pinaghati-hati into six (episodes). We actually switched and added some scenes in order to complete the series format.”
HBO has greenlit a Season 2 for Matti’s crime thriller. According to the director, he and Michiko Yamamoto are in the process of writing the series under Reality MM Studious, which is Matti’s production outfit with Dondon Monteverde.
It will introduce a big star as a new major character alongside characters from the original film and mini-series. “We have done research since June when we were told we might have a second season. Even without finalizing it with HBO, we started doing research,” Matti said.
“We are going into a writer’s room the first week of November to flesh out all the details of the six episodes. It’s still going to be a mini-series. We might go into production in the second quarter of next year.”
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