MIFF producer Lisa Lew happy for ‘Hello, Love, Again’ success

(From left) Alden Richards and Kathryn Bernardo for “Hello, Love’ Again.” Image: Instagram/@aldenrichards02

Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) executive producer Lisa Lew said that she is “happy and proud” of the success of the Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards starrer “Hello, Love, Again” after it became the first Filipino film to cross the P1 billion mark at the global box office.

“It shows you that there are people who deliver the numbers, and everybody should know that. When you see that kind of box office, it shows that our numbers count, and not all the numbers in passive counted, because not all the studios would count their numbers. It was a wonderful race. We’re not surprised. We know that because we live there. The rest of the country, in the US too, knows that our numbers are from the Philippines. So that really builds wealth in the future. And I think we’ll see a lot more in the future,” she told INQUIRER.net.

Ahead of the 2nd MIFF in Hollywood that is set to screen the 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) film entries from Jan. 28 to Feb. 2, Lew stressed that they made the effort to improve things from the previous year.

“We have, obviously, the 10 films from MMFF, and it looks really great. We’re excited, and we also have some surprises and some sneak peek films, as they’ve seen before, some previews, and we’re going to integrate some special screenings, which will be announced, but I think people will be really excited about these. So we love the lineup for everyone; of course you all will see here in Manila once the Christmas season starts officially, but they look great, really star studded,” she said.

The MIFF team, including executive producer Lisa Lew, who shares her gladness for the success of ‘Hello, Love, Again’ | Image: INQUIRER.net/Jessica Ann Evangelista

Aside from hitting the P1 billion mark, “Hello, Love, Again” also broke its way into the US Top 10 box office at No. 8. It also earned the biggest first-day ticket sales of P85 million when it premiered on Nov. 13 and achieved the highest single-day gross of P131 million last Nov. 16. 

The romantic film has recently become the highest-grossing Filipino movie of all time as of Nov. 22, dethroning the 2023 MMFF entry, “Rewind,” starring Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, which earned P924 million during its theatrical run.

Meanwhile, as part of their pre-interlude activities for the festival, Cinegang Inc. and MIFF held a panel discussion, dubbed “How to Award Your Film and TV Project,” on Monday, Nov. 25, as a way to help boost the Filipino actors, filmmakers, and producers’ chances to break through the Hollywood awards season. 

Actor-director Fifth Solomon, who’s one of the participants in the seminar, emphasized that it’s important for Filipino creatives to know how they could penetrate the global awarding bodies.

“Interested ako sobra to join the seminar kasi syempre hindi natin alam kung paano makapenerate sa mga award-giving bodies, especially sa international. Paano makakuha ng grant, maganda rin ‘yon. Saka syempre ‘yun Filipino films pang global siya, ‘yung quality. Nakakasabay naman tayo sa film industry ng ibang bansa,” he said.

(I am very interested to join the seminar because, of course, we don’t know how to penetrate the award-giving bodies, especially internationally. How to get a grant, that’s also good. Then, of course, Filipino films are global the quality. We can keep up with the film industry of other countries.)

Solomon, who admitted that he was supposed to have a film in this year’s MMFF but his entry “Lasting Moments” didn’t make the cut, expressed how proud he was for the commercial success of “Hello, Love, Again.”

“Nakakatuwa na nabubuhay na naman ‘yung cinema industry natin. May mga problem pa rin, struggling, pero nakikita natin ‘yung growth na bumabalik uli ‘yung mga tao sa sinehan and mahalaga na mapanood rin sa ibang bansa,” he stated.

(It’s good that our cinema industry is alive again. There are still problems, struggling, but we are seeing the growth that people are coming back to the cinema and it is important for the film to be seen in other countries as well.)

Solomon shared that he will try to submit his film to the summer edition of the MMFF in April of next year.

Meanwhile, Mark Dascasos (John Wick 3) and Nico Santos (Crazy Rich Asians) also shared their experiences in Hollywood as actors in the second session of the seminar.