MANILA, Philippines – Paolo Ballesteros finds himself in a unique position this movie season – he starred in two movies that were in the running to be in the Metro Manila Film Festival lineup, and only one of them made it.

Die Beautiful, a movie for which Paolo won Best Actor at the Tokyo International Film Festival, is in the 2016 lineup.

Meanwhile, Enteng Kabisote 10 and the Abangers, is not. The movie, starring MMFF regular Vic Sotto, was one of the films that were snubbed, along with the Vice Ganda movie The Super Parental Guardians and the 7th installment of Mano Po.

Following many changes to the MMFF this year – including changes to its executive committee, the criteria for selection, and the submission rules – mostly independently produced films are set to screen on December 25.

At the same conference, Paolo was asked about how he felt, given the situation he was in.

Paolo Ballesteros on #DieBeautiful making it to #MMFF2016. Paolo is also part of #Enteng10. @rapplerdotcom pic.twitter.com/5S6uiMQc5x

— Vernise L. Tantuco (@verntantuco) November 25, 2016

“Siyempre, mixed emotions, dahil same yung namang level na effort na binigay ko sa Die Beautiful, parehas lang naman dito sa Enteng Kabisote,” he said. “Nakikita na kung ano yung paghihirap ko doon, ganoon din yung paghihirap ni Bossing [Vic Sotto]. Na-eexperience ko firsthand na kung anong oras na tayong umuuwi, diba?”

(Of course, mixed emotions, because the level of effort that I gave for Die Beautiful is the same that I gave to Enteng Kabisote. You can see that how hard I worked is the same as how hard Bossing [Vic Sotto] worked. I experienced firsthand what time we would go home, right?)

Paolo added that all the films that were submitted must have been great in quality, or the filmmakers would not have sent them in.

He continued, providing the perspective of those who worked with in Die Beautiful: “‘Yung sa amin naman, ‘yung wish kasi namin sana is mapanood ng mga Filipino audience, yung sa’min, kasi nagpremiere siya sa Japan, napanood ng mga Hapon, eh nagustohan naman nila. Eh, we’re thinking na parang what more kaya kung yung mga Pinoy yung makakapanood?”

(For us, we just wished that the Filipino audience would be able to see it, because it premiered in Japan, and the Japanese saw it and liked it. We’re thinking, what more if Filipinos watched it?)

Enteng Kabisote will now screen on November 30 instead, which Paolo said could be better for audiences: “‘Mas maganda naman, kasi mas maaga naman ang Pasko natin ngayon.” (It’s better, because Christmas is coming early this year.)

Vic himself had great things to say about Paolo, saying during the press conference that the 8 movies chosen for the festival wouldn’t have been chosen if they weren’t good – “lalo na ‘yung Die Beautiful (especially Die Beautiful).” – Rappler.com