Directed by Academy Award winner Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) from a script by David Hemingson (Kitchen Confidential), The Holdovers follows a grumpy instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a prestigious American school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them – a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) – and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). 

The Holdovers has a 97% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. RogerEbert.com finds The Holdover as a “consistently smart, funny movie about people who are easy to root for and like the ones we know”, while CNN praises The Holdovers as “one of director Alexander Payne’s best films – very funny, occasionally touching and a sterling example of the bonds that can be forged by an unlikely family.” Lauds Entertainment Weekly, “The Holdovers is a warm hug of a movie and the closest thing we’ve had to a new holiday classic in quite some time.”

The Holdovers has been nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It recently won two Golden Globe Awards, for Giamatti and Randolph. Don’t miss the critically acclaimed film, distributed by Universal Pictures International and available exclusively in Ayala Malls Cinemas.