MANILA — The Filipino family tradition of watching films under the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) on Christmas day is back.

As early as 1 p.m., lines were already long and people patiently queued to buy tickets and watch the MMFF movies.

Some of the moviegoers chose "Rewind," "Mallari," "Penduko,"’ and "Family of Two."

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To avoid the long lines, some bought tickets for more than one movie.

For the first time in his career, Piolo Pascual went on a cinema tour to personally check and thank movie goers for patronizing his horror movie "Mallari."

The actor was surprised to find their screening schedule in a mall in Pasay City to be sold out that early Christmas day.

"Sa lahat ng mga pinuntahan naming sinehan, ang daming pila. Sabi ko, wow, buhay na buhay ang pelikulang Pilipino," he said.

Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon together with Tirso Cruz III and his wife Lyn Ychausti-Cruz, Darren Espanto, Cassy Legaspi, Cacai Bautista and other cast members of "When I Met You in Tokyo" visited block screening schedules of Santos’ fandom in Makati and Quezon City.

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Santos was in tears when she saw her friends including Roderick Paulate in one of her screenings in Trinoma Cinema in Quezon City.

Matteo Guidicelli led his pack and surprised movie goers who watched "Penduko."

"Rewind" lead stars Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera were also up and about early on Christmas day to personally thank their loyal fans for organizing block schedules of their heavy drama movie.

According to MMFF spokesperson Noel Ferrer, they will not release any sort of ranking or list to avoid trending that might affect or influence the behavior of moviegoers.

Ferrer said that they are happy to see people going back to cinemas and each of the ten movies are getting the fair share of exposure, limelight and patronage from moviegoers nationwide.

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