Siding with the earlier concerns raised by moviegoers.
In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Call Me Mother director and screenwriter Jun Robles Lana vented his frustration over the high prices of tickets to the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), in which the said movie is one of the eight entries in the 51st edition.
Lana reflected that the festival, traditionally scheduled to start on Christmas Day, has been dubbed as the “people’s festival” for decades. “It was the one time of year when ordinary workers took their children to the mall to see their idols,” he added.
But today, he said, “a family of four would need at least ₱1,500 just to enter the theater, not including transportation or even a single bag of popcorn.“
“By pricing the ordinary Filipino out of the theater, the industry hasn’t just lost customers, it has lost its soul. Cinema has shifted from a shared national culture to a middle-class privilege,” the director lamented.
He stressed, “You cannot promote a ‘National’ Film Festival while maintaining prices that exclude the nation.“
Lana then referenced the much-debated P500 Noche Buena statement by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the final part of his post.
“Until we admit that cinema has become a luxury that the ‘₱500 Noche Buena’ family cannot afford, we are simply watching the slow, expensive sunset of Philippine cinema,” wrote the filmmaker.
Netizens agreed with his post, with one user writing: “so agree with this direk! 450php cinema ticket without any popcorn or drink feels so unrewarding even if the movie is great.”
Another shared, “This is true. [I] was planning to watch at (least) 2 movies… but thought (twice) after considering the amount I need to pay for a family of 3… ‘wag na lang… I can spend this to our food budget instead.“
The MMFF has not yet commented on the matter as of this writing.
