Pepe Herrera, Yassi Pressman and newcomer Cailey Magno lead a family drama about a dying girl’s search for someone to look after her father. Its director compared it to a film whose sequel is in the same festival.

Benedict Mique has said he cried several times while writing Little Hope. “Sinusulat mo pa lang, umiiyak ka na” (You’re already crying while you’re writing it), he told The Philippine Star in June.

The film follows a young girl with cancer whose mother is already gone. Knowing her time is short, she spends it looking for someone to stay with her father after she dies.

Little Hope is one of four films named on October 12 to complete the 52nd Metro Manila Film Festival lineup. Mique wrote and directed it, and his company, Lonewolf Films, produces.

The Story and the Cast

Pepe Herrera plays the father, and newcomer Cailey Magno plays the girl. Yassi Pressman plays the woman the child hopes she can entrust her father to. Mique has described the girl as fighting the illness while already thinking about how her father will cope without her, and said research shows children with terminal illnesses often worry about their parents in this way.

The production brought in a medical doctor as a consultant to keep the illness accurate on screen. Mique has kept the ending to himself; asked about it, he told the press that audiences would have to watch the film to find out.

Pressman, Behind the Camera Too

Pressman co-produces Little Hope with Lonewolf. It is her second project with Mique, after the 2025 horror film Isolated, which Lonewolf made with Viva Films. Parts of Little Hope were filmed in Camarines Sur.

Mique’s Comparison

Mique, the writer-director behind Netflix’s Lolo and the Kid, has built his recent work around family stories. Asked what Little Hope would feel like, he named Miracle in Cell No. 7 and Rewind, two MMFF tearjerkers. Rewind remains the highest-grossing Philippine film ever made.

The first of those now has a sequel on the same slate. 2nd Miracle in Cell No. 7, Viva’s follow-up to its 2019 adaptation, also centers on a father and his daughter, and both films open on Christmas Day.

What We Don’t Know Yet

No trailer, runtime or official synopsis beyond Mique’s own description has been released, and the supporting cast hasn’t been announced.

Where and When

Little Hope opens December 25, 2026, as part of the 52nd Metro Manila Film Festival, with cinema tickets capped at ₱299 for the festival’s two-week run.

Part of ElysPlanet’s ongoing MMFF 2026 coverage, updated as each entry’s deep dive goes live.