It's Metro Filmfest time: See all of you at the movies!

From today until Jan. 3, 2002, seven Filipino films will be exclusively shown in Metro theaters for the 2001 Metro Manila Film Festival. The batch is said to be "one of the best" in years.

The Gabi ng Parangal will be held on Thursday, Dec. 27. As usual and as is the tradition, all are nominated for dozen or so awards at stake, so it’s everybody’s ballgame (although, like me and everybody else, I’m sure you have your own choices).

If the crowd that watched the Parade of Stars yesterday, kicking off the 10-day Metrofest, was any indication, then it’s safe to predict that local movies are headed for better times. Keep your fingers crossed. That is, despite the pessimism expressed by people (critics kuno) who love to pass judgment on local movies even if, would you believe, they don’t actually watch them.

If the local movie industry is in a slump, it’s because it’s not an isolated industry. Thus, it’s affected by the flow of the economy not only in the country but in the whole Asian Region, even the world economic situation.

Let’s patronize local movies because they’re still the cheapest form of entertainment available to us.

On this page is the smorgasbord you can choose from. Better still, watch all seven of them.