Filipino film Deleter to hit UAE cinemas after huge local success

Star Cinemas and Vox Cinemas are showing the award-winning movie this week

Nadine Lustre won Best Lead Actress for her role in Deleter at the 2022 Metro Manila Film Festival awards. Photo: Viva Films / YouTube

Filipino movie Deleter is having its premiere in the UAE on Tuesday, following its critical and commercial success in the Philippines.

The psychological thriller follows Lyra, played by the illustrious Nadine Lustre, whose day job is to delete disturbing content from a social media platform. The story takes an eerie turn when a colleague goes missing, and Lyra gets involved in the investigation.

Directed by Mikhail Red, Deleter is hitting Star Cinemas in Al Ghurair Centre on Tuesday, followed by Vox Cinemas on Thursday.

The movie earned high praise in the Philippines, with Lustre also taking the spotlight for her performance. The actress, 29, is typically known for her roles in hit romcom movies.

Deleter was Red's entry to the 2022 Metro Manila Film Festival, one of the oldest film festivals in the South-East Asian country. It is held annually from December 25 to the first weekend of January, with only local films shown in cinemas across Metro Manila over its duration.

The festival concludes with a glittering award ceremony called MMFF Gabi ng Parangal, where the line-up competes for major film and acting awards, similar to international events such as the Oscars.

Red's Deleter bagged the top award of the night. Aside from Best Picture, the movie also took home six other major trophies, including Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Lead Actress for Lustre.

It also won three technical awards, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects and Best Editing.

It is the only 2022 MMFF movie that is confirmed to screen in the UAE so far.

Aside from its critical success, the movie reportedly earned Dh661,503 (10 million Philippines pesos) on the first day of the festival, making it one of the single-day top-grossing MMFF films. As of December 31, the film had already reached 126 million Philippines pesos, according to local media.