A post shared by Dawn Zulueta 🇵🇭 (@dawnzulueta) on Aug 14, 2017 at 5:17am PDT

MANILA – Veteran comedian Vic Sotto is happy to be back in the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) after skipping it for a year after his movie “Enteng Kabisote” didn’t make it to last year’s lineup.

For this year’s festival, Sotto’s movie “Meant to Beh” was one of the first four films to make it to the “Magic 8” based on script submissions.

“Definitely [na-miss ko] and I am very glad that we are back,” he told reporters after their story conference on Monday.

Asked how he feels about the setup of MFFF this year, he said: “Okay naman. I definitely agree with the rules for this year to accommodate everyone, 'yung sinasabi nilang mainstream and indie.”

For Sotto, the dichotomy is unnecessary because all of them are promoting the Filipino movie industry.

“Personally, I don’t look at it that way. Para sa akin, pare-parehong puro Filipino films iyan. Me, I can consider myself as an indie producer because I don’t belong to a big production house. But it’s just a name. Nalagyan na lang ng branding which shouldn’t be the case sana. So this setup is kinda ideal for everyone. Everybody happy,” he said.

Despite his non-inclusion last year, Sotto said he doesn’t harbor any ill feelings towards the body making up the MMFF.

“Wala naman akong masamang tinapay from what happened last year. I respect everyone, every decision. Okay lang. It’s just nice to be back and I feel really good about it,” he said.

Aside from the fact that they are part of the festival, Sotto said it also makes him happy that several Kapamilya and Kapuso stars agreed to be part of “Meant to Beh.”

Part of the cast are Dawn Zulueta, Daniel Matsunaga, JC Santos, Sue Ramirez, Gabbi Garcia, Ruru Madrid, Andrea Torres and child actor Baste.

“I’m quite excited dahil parang it’s a first for me to do something of this genre na family movie, walang fantasy, walang action. This is something new for me. And to be working again with Dawn and itong mga bago nating kasama, parang I’m very very excited to finally do this one. To top it all, it’s our first time to work with a very good director, Mr. Chris Martinez,” he said.