MANILA - Brillante Mendoza, the 2009 Cannes Film Festival Palm d’Or best director, has been accused of spreading a rumor that his latest film, “Lola,” would be the official entry of the Philippines to next year’s Academy Awards, or popularly known as the Oscars.

Mendoza allegedly made the statement during the screening of “Lola” at the main competition of 66th Venice International Film Festival last week. Mendoza vehemently denied the allegation.

“’Lola’ is not our entry yet to Hollywood’s Oscars,” Mendoza clarified in an exclusive interview at his studio in Mandaluyong City Tuesday night.

“How could that be when the Philippines through the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) haven’t chosen any Filipino film to represent our country at the Oscars next year?” he added.

Mendoza said the rumor forced a FAP member to confront him about the issue.

“I didn’t spread such information there. They might want to ask some Filipino filmmakers who where there if I went around telling people ‘Lola’ is Philippine entry to Oscars next year,” the controversial director dared.

“It all started in a blog written by a certain Rene Cruz which was sent to us by director Arman Reyes. But it was a very unofficial statement,” exclaimed Mendoza. “The FAP is the one who selects the official representative of the Philippines to Oscars and its selection has to go through a process.”

He admitted though that he wants “Lola,” which stars veteran stars Anita Linda and Rustica Carpio, to be the country’s official best foreign language film finalist at the Oscars.

“That is why we are showing it commercially on September 23 because the rule of AMPAS (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) is, for a foreign film to be qualified to the Oscars, it should be shown from October of 2008 to September of 2009,” he informed.

In the past, Mendoza’s films were invited and considered by the FAP for the Oscars but they all lost to other local films.

This time, he has to send “Lola” to FAP for screening to qualify for a short list since the deadline of the submission of its official entry to AMPAS is on September 30, 2009.

Meanwhile, Brillante flew to Brazil Wednesday morning to attend the Sau Paulo International Film Festival, which prepared a retrospective of all his films except “Lola.”