Albert Josef Lirio

Director optimistic about state of PH cinema: ‘Artists always step up’

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775225186590IMG_1782.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner">“Bar Boys: After School” director Kip Oebanda (center) at a talkback session during Juanflix’s first Kapelikula event for 2026 at the newly opened Cinematheque Centre Manila in Intramuros. (Albert Josef Lirio, ABS-CBN News)</span></span></span></div><p>Can filmmaking survive the current global unrest? If you’d ask “Bar Boys: After School” director Kip Oebanda, he’d tell you yes.</p><p>In fact, he believes it can be a tool that helps bring down the divide between the two sides of the coin, as he believes films are “our best tool for empathy.”</p><p>“I haven&#x27;t really found a way to get people to empathize more than cinema. I haven&#x27;t really found any way na magkaintindihan ang dalawang tao na hindi magkakilala than sitting… in a theater… screaming together, crying together, laughing together,” he explained during a talkback session for Juanflix’s first Kapelikula Session for 2026 last March 20.</p><p>(I haven&#x27;t really found a way to get people to empathize more than cinema. I haven’t really found any way for two strangers to understand each other than sitting in a theater—screaming together, crying together, laughing together. </p><p>Juanflix is the streaming platform of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) that made a comeback this year, offering a library of Philippine and world cinema for low prices, some even for free. Kapelikula, meanwhile, offers exclusive film screenings and talkback sessions with directors to its loyal subscribers. </p><p>It is these spaces that Oebanda cited as an example of how cinema can be developed further into a “tool for social change,” as it frees people from the shackles of individualism propped up by the “capitalist world.”</p><p>“Cinema is one of those rare spaces where we share a common experience. Hindi ko nga alam kung anong political affiliation ng katabi ko. Baka ‘pag nakilala ko siya, hate na hate ko siya. Pero dito, tumatawa kami pareho at umiiyak pareho sa same thing,” he said.</p><p>(Cinema is one of those rare spaces where we share a common experience. I don’t even know the political affiliation of the one seated beside me. I could hate him if I knew him. But here, we laugh and cry at the same thing.)</p><p>“Bar Boys: After School” star Therese Malvar rallied behind her director’s point, noting that despite the struggle, she continues to hold on to filmmaking and how it captures a portrait of the present it was created in.</p><p>“[It] really helps shape a perspective. It really holds a memory to a nation.”</p><div> </div><div><strong>Cost and competition</strong></div><p>Admittedly, though, the panelists were not naïve to the current difficulties of filming, especially on the financial aspect. A much heftier production cost and the audience’s choice to consume media from their living rooms are a deadly combination. </p><p>“Kailangan ‘yung film mo, at this point, mayroon siyang hook that will make people spend so much money to go to the mall to ignore the fact that there are thousands of other content na available sa bahay nila that they can watch in their sala,” Oebanda pointed out.</p><p>(Today, your film needs to have a hook that will make people spend so much money to go to the mall to ignore the fact that there are thousands of other content available at home.)</p><p>Regular cinema tickets in Metro Manila average at P400 and can go as high as P600 and up — a major factor considered for the decline in box office revenue of the entries of the most recent Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), including Oebanda’s “Bar Boys: After School.”</p><p>“It&#x27;s a tough time for our industry. Kami nga third [highest grosser] kami sa MMFF, pero hindi naman siya kasinlaki ng mga dating third sa MMFF… Makikita mo ‘yan na ‘pag binaba mo ‘yung price [ng tickets], actually audiences tend to watch more,” he shared.</p><p>(It&#x27;s a tough time for our industry. Even our film — the third highest grosser in the last MMFF — it did not generate the same revenue as previous third-highest grossers. But you see, if you lower the price of tickets, more audiences tend to watch.)</p><div><strong></strong><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/showbiz/movies-series/2026/1/2/jun-robles-lana-weighs-in-on-rising-mmff-ticket-prices-saying-the-industry-has-lost-its-soul-1624">Jun Robles Lana weighs in on rising MMFF ticket prices, saying the industry &#x27;has lost its soul’</a><strong></strong><br/></div><p>This was true for some of the breakout hits of late. Director Antoinette Jadaone’s “Sunshine” lowered its ticket prices to P275 for Metro Manila cinemas and P230 in the provinces. More recently, director Irene Villamor’s “The Loved One” starring Jericho Rosales and Anne Curtis-Smith also slashed ticket prices, reaching as low as P99. </p><div><br/></div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-0" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUrtXb5lKY2/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=540&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A71250.89999997616%2C%22ls%22%3A70899.5%2C%22le%22%3A71096.60000002384%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br/></div><p>Making cinema affordable, however, is useless if the material doesn’t stick with the audience. At the end of the day, it is the quality of the material — from storytelling, cinematography, acting, to editing — that will get people to decide to experience the cinema, says Oebanda. </p><p>With the deluge of content from all over the world, Filipinos are not just limited to wanting the tried-and-tested local narrative. They crave for something new, as they see in content from other markets like South Korea and Europe.</p><p>“Anong kaya mong kontrolin? ‘Yong sarili mong writing, ‘yong sarili mong konsepto, ‘yong sarili mong understanding of the human condition so that may pag-asa ‘yong pelikula mo the moment it comes out,” Oebanda stressed.</p><p>(What can you control? Your writing style, your concepts, your understanding of the human condition. These will give your films a fighting chance when it releases in the cinemas.) </p><p>An additional competitor is slop — AI-generated material that is flooding social media. Oebanda says these short-form, dirt-cheap cost productions will soon eat up into the film market and cause an upheaval, prompting creatives to make pieces that “appeal and speak to the audience.”</p><div> </div><div><strong>Like a phoenix from the ashes</strong></div><p>Given these external and internal struggles, Oebanda remains optimistic that the film medium will survive — something that it has exhibited throughout its history. </p><p>“We&#x27;ve been here before. This art form has had so many of these challenges. We&#x27;ve had world wars, we&#x27;ve had martial law and censorship, we&#x27;ve had that era in the 2000s na puro bomba films lang iyong kumikita, and then the sudden shift to digital, and then television in the ‘50s. It&#x27;s not new to our industry to be challenged, but the artists always step up.”</p><p>(We&#x27;ve been here before. This art form has had so many of these challenges. We&#x27;ve had world wars, we&#x27;ve had martial law and censorship, we&#x27;ve had that era in the 2000s where “bomba” films were king, and then the sudden shift to digital, and then television in the ‘50s. It&#x27;s not new to our industry to be challenged, but the artists always step up.)</p><p>Post-World War II Philippines, surprisingly, is considered by scholars as the “first Golden Age of Philippine Cinema.” Reeling in from the ashes of the war, it stood independently for the first time after centuries of colonization. Film studios at the time were churning out an average of 350 films per year, according to the San Diego Filipino Cinema — almost one per day of the year. The era also marked the Philippines’ debut in the Cannes Film Festival with Manuel Conde’s “Genghis Khan.”</p><p>The backdrop of rebuilding from the war and establishing independence did not hinder Filipino filmmakers then, and Oebanda believes the current global unrest and local tensions wouldn’t dampen the passion of the filmmakers of today.</p><p>Quoting National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee, he said: “This era of difficulty is going to lead to the next Golden Age in Philippine Cinema.”</p><p>And we hope they are right.</p>

<p>Can filmmaking survive the current global unrest? If you’d ask “Bar Boys: After School” director Kip Oebanda, he’d tell you yes.</p>

Can filmmaking survive the current global unrest? If you’d ask “Bar Boys: After School” director Kip Oebanda, he’d tell you yes.