Film Development Council of the Philippines chair Liza Diño-Seguerra got a lot more than what she bargained for as the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino film festival wrapped up its seven-day run with a very encouraging turnout.
Diño posted on her Facebook page Tuesday that the festival’s total running gross as of Monday, August 21, was around P127 million, which is over their target box office gross of P100 million. And it’s very much possible that the PPP may still crack the P200 million mark given the large turnout of audiences who flocked to cinemas to catch the 12 entries on the festival’s last day on Tuesday.
Later in the day, the indefatigable FDCP chief later went on Facebook Live to regretfully announce that despite the clamor for the festival’s extension as manifested by fans who created the #ExtendPPP hashtag, the festival had to officially end on August 22 as originally scheduled.
The good news, however, is that fans have not seen the last of the 12 PPP entries.
Diño announced that three of the 12 films, namely Jason Paul Laxamana’s “100 Tula Para Kay Stella,” Victor Villanueva’s “Patay na si Hesus” and Kip Oebanda’s “Bar Boys,” will continue their theatrical run. The three films are the festival’s highest grossing films with “100 Tula Para Kay Stella” getting the lion’s share of the box office receipts at P80 million as of its sixth day in theaters.
PPP promos, student discounts and festival passes, however, will no longer be honored during the extension run of these three films.
The nine other entries — “Birdshot” by Mikhail Red, “Ang Manananggal sa Unit 23B” by Prime Crisologo Cruz, “AWOL” by Enzo Williams, “Hamog” by Ralston Jover, “Paglipay” by Zig Dulay, “Pauwi Na” by Paolo Villaluna, “Salvage” by Sherad Anthony Sanchez, “Star Na si Van Damme Stallone” by Randolph Longjas, and “Triptiko” by Miguel Franco Michelena — will also have their special cinema runs under the FDCP and SM Cinema’s Cine Lokal program starting Wednesday, August 23.
Under Cine Lokal, selected independently produced films are each given a guaranteed one-week run at eight dedicated SM Cinemas in SM Megamall, SM North EDSA, SM Fairview, SM Iloilo, SM Southmall, SM Cebu, SM Bacoor, and SM Mall of Asia. Ticket price is only P150.
Diño added that the 12 entries will also be booked for additional screenings at the FDCP’s Cinematheque theaters around the country as well as arthouse venues like Cinema ’76.
As earlier announced by Diño during the festival’s Thanksgiving Night last Tuesday, the PPP will be back next year, possibly with a tighter, more streamlined line-up of six to eight feature-length entries.
