It’s Christmas time again and the Filipino film lovers season is here, the Metro Manila Film Festival! This 2015, it gets bigger with the main stream films, new wave full and shorts and animation films.

What is different this year is for first time in the 41-year history, entries under the New Wave category will be available simultaneously in theaters and online, exclusively through HOOQ. You can now watch the exciting new wave short films and animation films in your laptops at home, or anywhere with your tablets and smart phones.

HOOQ is Asia’s largest video-on-demand service that allows you to watch movies online via your computer, laptop, tables, and mobile phone via streaming or download.

This 2015, MMFF partnered with HOOQ to give another option for movie lovers to watch the new wave category finalists’ animation and short film entries.

The MMFF New Wave category started in 2010 to give the opportunity to independent filmmakers to showcase their entries and the chance to take home prize money that could potentially be used to fund future film projects.

Here is the trailer of the New Wave categories finalists:

VIDEO

From the hundreds of submissions, this year’s five finalists were selected by a jury. Here are the finalists for the short film categories:

SHORT FILM FINALISTS

Daisy

It is a story about a wife and mother Barbara who orders a Proxy Daisy robot to take care of household duties, only for Barbara to have a growing realization that there may be something very wrong with the robot that she has let into her families’ lives. Written and directed by Bryan Reyes of Colegio de San Lorenzo, this is his first film competition that he joined on a whim and shot two days prior to the contest deadline.

Ding Mangasyas (Tough Guys)

The film centers on 2 brothers who have had a lifelong love-hate relationship filled with violence. They’re faced with the emotional reality of separation as one of them packs up to work in the US. The film was directed by Justine Emmanuel Dizon and written by Jason Paul Laxamana of Kayumanggi Pictures, who was initially discouraged by the rejection of this same film in another competition. This is his first national competition, and he is proud to show off the “homegrown” talents of his team who are from Pampanga like him.

Lapis

Lapis follows the career shift of a pencil artist in his 50s as he applies for a job as a graphic artist only to be confronted by the realization that his medium of expertise is defunct in a modern world. This moving film that addresses the conflict of analog vs. digital artistry was inspired by real stories of unemployment in the country. Written and directed by Maricel Cariaga of Center Stage Productions, this is her third competition after UP POV 11 and Sinkwento International Film Festival, wherein she placed top 3 for both.

Momento

The film features an ageing couple, Teresita and Ronaldo, as they celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary–despite Teresita having made a terrible discovery earlier in the film that “marks the darkest hour of their relationship.” Written and directed by Jan-Kyle Nieva of the UP Film Institute, Nieva states that he enjoys disturbing films and made this film to challenge himself into delving into a genre that he has not previously explored.

Mumu

This horror film is about a fresh grad named Kara who resists pursuing a nursing career despite her nagging mother and pressure from witnessing the success of her friends. She also finds herself being haunted by a ghost – a character she had played in a blockbuster horror film. Mumu is directed by Cheryl Tagyamon from UP Diliman, who also wrote the film. Mumu has thus far won 3rd place in the National Digital Arts Awards 2014 Motion Graphics Category for Students, and in the UP Film Institute’s Black Beret Film Festival it won the Audience Choice Award, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Performance.

Screening

These less than 10 minutes short films will be showing at selected cinemas from December 17 to 24 at Glorietta 4, Robinsons Movie World Ermita and SM Megamall. Of course, the alternative is to watch them online via HOOQ from December 18.

In addition, HOOQ also has the largest collection of Pinoy movies and TV series, which includes close to a hundred winners and finalists of the Metro Manila Film Festival such as “Baler”, “Tanging Yaman”, “Mulawin the Movie, “Pedro Penduko” and many more classics.

You can try HOOQ with a free 30-day trial by signing up at www.HOOQ.tv. Monthly subscription is available at only Php 149 and can be charged on your Globe mobile bill or via credit card, or it comes free with Globe Home Broadband plans P1,299 and up.

So let’s go to the movies while staying at home and let’s get HOOQed!