Stars of Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry Culion, Meryll Soriano and Jasmine Curtis-Smith, spoke up on the early pullout of some films from cinemas at the MMFF awarding night last Friday, December 27.
According to Meryll, movie houses and cinemas began to remove films including their historical film from their line-ups.
“Bigyan lang natin ng chance yung mga tao to have time to watch our film. Yung mga films na tinanggal sa sinehan tulad ng Culion, Mindanao, Write About Love at Sunod. I’m really encouraging people to watch,” she said.
The actress added their team have been getting feedback from moviegoers who wanted to watch their film but did not have the opportunity to since it has already been pulled out from several cinemas.
“Culion is a historical film so sana magkaroon ng chance ang mga Pilipino to watch it. Second day kasi tinanggal na ano pang chance namin dun. Syempre di naman lahat ng tao makakapanod sa [December] 25,” she explained.
Meryll noted that the people behind Culion are not after the awards, but rather for the entertainment of the Filipino people.
“Ang gusto ko lang mapanuod ng mga tao pelikula namin. The awards, masarap naman talaga recognition yan pero hindi yun ang pinunta namin dito, ang pinunta namin dito para mapanuod,” the actress said.
Meryll’s Culion co-star Jasmine Curtis-Smith shared the same sentiments, saying instances like this cannot be avoided.
“Ganon talaga. Business is business pero di natin maiiwasan malungkot tayo,” she said.
Both actresses said they’re happily supporting their other films despite the early pullout for theirs.
“I’m just very happy and very glad na yung ibang pelikula may kita, may ibang nanunuod at marami pa rin sumusuporta sa Metro Manila Film Festival,” Jasmine said.
