Manila Film Festival expands into TV, video market. Buyers, sellers, personalities to mingle.

Some 1,500 foreign participants from 60 countries are expected at the second annual Manila International Film Festival (MIFF), which will take place January 24-February 4 in the Philippines. Said to be a pet project of Imelda R. Marcos, wife of the country's strongman, the festival is organized by the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines (ECP), a government development agency of which Marcos' 27-year-old daughter Imee is director-general. The First Lady is MIFF chairperson and president. About 100 movie and TV personalities have confirmed their participation, including Jaclyn Smith, Cliff Robertson, Tony Curtis and Zsa Zsa Gabor from the U.S. and Senta Berger, Lino Ventura and Claudia Cardinale from Europe.

This year, festival activities have expanded to include sales of video and theatrical products, a hardware exhibition by Sony, JVC, Kodak and others, and a series of film symposia. Last year, official figures show, some 200 distributors and an incredible number of buyers - 800 - conducted an estimated $20 million (U.S.) worth of business. According to John J. Litton, the festival's director-general and ECP deputy director-general, the emphasis at MIFF '83 will be on Asia: 14 Asian features are to be exhibited and buyers from the area will be legion.

The official Golden Eagle prizes will be awarded at a gala ceremony to winners in four major categories: best film, best director, best actor and best actress. As of last month, 16 countries were submitting entries, and three more were awaiting clearance. Some 20 films will be selected for competition. While the festival is held at the four-story Film Center, screenings will be set up in the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), a four-building modular structure with rooms renting at from $558 to $2,164 (U.S). Video equipment is rented at $300 per set, but exhibitors can bring their own units and pay only $10 a day for "power consumption." Among the 400 films to be exhibited are Sir Richard Attenborough's three-hour spectacle Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley and Candice Bergen: Sophie's Choice, with Meryl Streep; and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict, with Paul Newman.

Included in the recently announced 15-member jury are Grigory Chukrai of the U.S.S.R., Nagisa Oshima of Japan, Xie Jin of the People's Republic of China, Ken Wlaschin of the U.K. and Luggi Waldleitner of West Germany. South Korea, this year's new entrant, will also be sending a juror, Suk-Kee Yoh.