Moviehouses Resume Regular Screening

January 8 marks the resumption of the screening of the non-MMFF entries and regular movies. The end of the Metro Manila Filmfest Season opens the moviehouse floodgates to regular theater screenings. First in the list of movies rolling into theaters is the resumption of the screening of the movie Avatar, which has already opened before the MMFF season and was halted temporarily during the festival season. There is also the opening of three big movies; the family-friendly Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel, the hilarious Zombieland, and the mysterious Sherlock Holmes. Other MMFF movies such as Ang Panday and Shake Rattle & Roll 11, among a couple of others are still showing and are still drawing box-office numbers.

During the Christmas holiday weeks, the Metro Manila Film Festival is being held. This festival began as one which aims to showcase Filipino cinema with a week wherein only Filipino movies are being shown. Eventually, it required all theaters in the country to only show locally produced films that were chosen by a selected committee. Over the years, though, the Festival had arguably gone through changes which many consider as a decline in the quality of Philippine Cinema, and according to many, made the festival something that is merely commercial rather than one devoted to Filipino artistry. This decline in quality made a number of people abhor the festival, because it forced theaters to show tagalog movies which they considered as awful and destroys the reputation of Philippine Cinema as a whole, and because it deprived these people of watching non-MMFF movies.