The holiday season is fast approaching and while Filipinos are known to have the grandest (and longest) celebrations out there, with the current situation, the festivities will surely be different this year.
By this time last year, the Christmas craze had begun with establishments festooned with decorations and lights, malls crowded with shoppers, and the warm happy buzz that we love about the “ber” months.
This Christmas might feel worlds away from last year, but Filipinos still have much to look forward to, with new ways to enjoy the season. One of the best examples is the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), a longstanding and cherished Christmas tradition, which usually runs in cinemas from December 25 until the first weekend of January in the following year.
MMFF features a line-up of locally made films of different genres that is ideal for all members of the family to enjoy. Since cinemas are still closed to the public, MMFF organizer, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), is finding new ways to keep the holiday tradition alive, bringing the magic of the film festival to Filipinos here and abroad.
“COVID-19 should not dampen the Filipino Christmas spirit. We are bringing the MMFF tradition in every Filipino home across the globe with this new platform. We are very excited about this because Filipinos abroad and those who cannot go home for the holidays can enjoy the MMFF tradition by watching MMFF movies on Upstream platform,” said MMFF Chairman Danilo Lim.
Recently, MMDA has inked a partnership with Globe Telecom as the exclusive presenter for this year’s MMFF. The partnership brings this year’s line-up of festival entries onto Upstream, the newest transactional video-on-demand (VOD) platform, where you can stream your favorite MMFF films from wherever you may be. Tickets will be affordably priced and can be purchased on GMovies, the country’s largest aggregator for online cinema ticketing platform partner of Upstream.
“Globe aims to recreate the Christmas that Filipinos love – amid the crisis – and the partnership that we forged with the MMDA is one way to do this. By making the entries accessible on Upstream in partnership with GMovies, we are bringing the MMFF tradition closer to home and delighting families in and out of the country. This also allows Filipinos to watch the movies using a legitimate platform,” said Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu.
“Together with our partner Sphere, we are happy to deliver the MMFF tradition online via Upstream. Upstream enabled by GMovies will allow local Filipino content producers to bring their content to Filipinos at home and all over the world,” Upstream partner Dondon Monteverde added.
Since the MMFF entries will be distributed online, the Upstream platform features technology developed in partnership with global, industry leading media delivery providers. In conjunction with Globe’s #PlayItRight campaign, Upstream is poised to deliver a better viewing experience for customers while protecting the content creators’ digital rights.
As a telco company that bridges content creators and content consumers, Globe supports battling anti-piracy to help protect the entertainment industry. WIth Globe’s #PlayItRight anti-piracy campaign, Filipinos are made aware of their responsibility to consume legal online content in respect and support of the works of filmmakers and entertainment content creators. The need to curb piracy is crucial as the Philippines has one of the highest levels of online piracy with 49% of Filipinos admitting to accessing streaming piracy websites or torrent sites, and 10% using illicit streaming devices (ISDs) to access pirated content, according to a September 2020 YouGov consumer survey, commissioned by the Asia Video Industry Association’s Coalition Against Piracy (AVIA-CAP).
