As a Filipino #cinephile, Christmas is dreadful time because of the Metro Manila Film Festival. This "film festival" is as far removed from the likes of Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance as you can imagine. This is because no other films can be shown in local cinemas (save for IMAXes). Thus local studios usually use this theater monopoly to put out crap.
Local critic Phil Dy sums up the situation best in a viral Twitter thread from 2018: https://twitter.com/philbertdy/status/1076651981190524928
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#cinephile #mmff #metromanilafilmfestival