ART AND NATURE WILL HEAL YOU AT THIS FREE MOUNTAINTOP FILM FESTIVAL

That feeling of being restored," says filmmaker and festival director Jennifer Maliwanag, "of remembering that life doesn't have to move so fast, is what planted the idea for Santa Maria Music and Film Festival.

- By ANDREA PANALIGAN

SMMFF remains free for everyone regardless of the logistical challenges. "We want it to feel like a space that genuinely belongs to the people, artists, families, students, locals, everyone," says Maliwanag.

Now in its third year, the festival returns on Dec. 6, featuring films from 17 countries in a beautiful open-air cinema in Laguna, along the Sierra Madre ridgeline. The films, curated from a yearlong selection process, hail from Japan, Korea, Italy, France, the US, the Philippines, and more.

Maliwanag built the open-air cinema from her family's mountain property in 2023. Before, whenever her friends came to visit, she noticed they would go home feeling lighter and calmer. That's when she thought, "What if we opened this mountain so other people could recharge too?"

'Setting aside time for art and nature isn't escape, but how we refill, how we stay human, and how we keep going,' says SMMFF director Jennifer Maliwanag.