October 23, 2024 | 11:08am
SENTOSA, Singapore — The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) unveiled the second batch of films that will be competing at the festival’s 50th edition later this year.
The five movies were unveiled during an event last October 22 in Mandaluyong’s Podium Hall hosted by Jake Ejercito and Isabelle Daza. These entries were chosen among finished films submitted on or before September 30.
The films are the romance films “Hold Me Close” and “My Future You,” thrillers “Topakk” and “Uninvited,” and horror movie “Espantaho.”
“Hold Me Close,” helmed by Jason Paul Laxamana, who competed last year with “Penduko,” sees him reuniting with his “Expensive Candy” stars Julia Barretto and Carlo Aquino.
Barretto last headlined an MMFF film in 2016 for “Vince and Kath and James,” while Aquino’s last entry in the festival was back in 2012 for Chito S. Roño’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll XIV.”
Roño directs Judy Ann Santos in “Espantaho,” her first movie since the 2019 MMFF movie “Mindanao,” where the actress is joined by Lorna Tolentino and Mon Confiado.
The director himself is coming back to the film festival after a decade when he competed with “Feng Shui 2.”
“Uninvited” stars Nadine Lustre and Vilma Santos — the two most recent Best Actress winners at the festival — along with Aga Muhlach under the direction of Dan Villegas, his first MMFF film since 2017’s “All of You.”
Richard Somes’ “Topakk” is headlined by Arjo Atayde and previously screened in several international film festivals last year including Cannes, Locarno, and Sitges.
In the cast with Atayde are Julia Montes, Sid Lucero, Kokoy de Santos, Enchong Dee, and Vin Abrenica.
“My Future You” is the first MMFF movie of love team Francine Diaz and Seth Fedelin, under the direction of Crisanto Aquino.
The first batch of films announced earlier this year were “The Kingdom” starring Piolo Pascual and Vic Sotto; Vice Ganda’s comeback movie “And The Breadwinner Is” directed by Jun Robles Lana; last year’s Best Director Pepe Diokno adapting “Himala: Isang Musical;” Zig Dulay’s “Green Bones;” and Kerwin Go’s “Strange Frequencies: Haunted Hospital.”
The 10 competing films of MMFF 2023 managed to collectively bring in P1.069 billion, beating the previous record held by the 2018 edition, a feat mostly attributed to the Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera movie “Rewind” — currently the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time.
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