Discoveries from Philippines World Cinema

As their third anniversary approaches, Clarice and Eli’s once-perfect love is tested when Clarice faces a life-changing choice that could either redefine their future—or end it entirely.

Behind the screen's brightness, a toddler is silently observing not only the videos but also the seemingly forgotten world. One example of a generation that grew up with algorithms is Bembem, a youngster who has learnt to find a playmate in the virtual world. Children like him are becoming increasingly silent as the cacophony of technology increases. Gradually, the melody of childhood is replaced by the sound of screens. However, in spite of everything, a tiny voice continues to beg, "Can we play?”

A Roxlee animation short.

A person becomes divided between the memory of home and the reality they return to.

As Soysoy reminisces his act of throwing a coin to honor his father, he returns back to the province to get away from the city life.

A coming-of-age story of two friends in Mindoro – Niko, a Manila boy, and Ayan, a Mangyan. Their unique bond spans a whole summer of being introduced to each other’s culture and lifestyle, with Niko teaching Ayan how to read, who in turn teaches Niko how to swim.

A star student-athlete feels his worth is tied to his swimming success, straining his relationship with his Dad. After winning an MVP award, the pressure drives him to find solace in films. He creates a short film that premieres the same day as his biggest competition, forcing him to choose between expectations and his true passion.

In Pietà, a mother reflects on how Mary never feared for Jesus’ safety, unlike her constant worry for her son Josh. One night, as she waits for him to return, time mysteriously stops. Replacing the clock’s batteries, it begins ticking backward, transporting her to a haunting memory—the night she dozed off waiting, only to be jolted awake by a gunshot that shattered her world.

The 300,000 residents of EMBO were just numbers on paper but behind the data are real people, families, and lives caught in a political war between two cities. Their voices were left unheard as the transition unfolded.

In a struggling community, a young girl and her father find hope in a humble thrift can, believing that every coin saved brings them closer to her dream of education.

A documentary that follows two adult foundlings in their search for belongingness and identity, after aging out of a system that left them without legal recognition.

Each piece of coconut brings hope that life will grow as sweet as its flesh, but no matter how tough the husk and shell are, in life’s challenges, they eventually wear down (get destroyed) in the end.

When an opportunity strikes for the chicken to prove his worth in battle, amidst the world treating him unfairly.

A friendship forced to part ways due to an unexpected turn of events.

Documentary by Jasmine Claire S. Dulay

"This film tells the story of Tomas, a young boy living in the Philippines who becomes a Hukbalahap, or "Huk" — a member of a communist guerrilla movement formed by Filipino peasant farmers, originally to resist the Japanese Army. After Tomas helps a farmer reload his overturned rice cart, he is targeted by the communist Huks for recruitment to their cause. The Huks indoctrinate Tomas, talking to him for hours until he decides to leave his home and join them. The Huks send Tomas to speak with the farmer about sharing his rice, but this turns out to be a diversion. When the farmer stands up for his rights, one of the Huks stabs him with a machete and takes his rice. As the film ends, Tomas realizes that he has become a murderer and will be trapped in a miserable existence as a Huk forever. The film is presented in the form of a puppet show" (US National Archives).

This film captures the friendship, collaboration and shared adventurous spirit between two pioneers in Philippine experimental filmmaking. After returning from Europe in 1977, Virgilio Aviado’s vision found a crucial collaborator in veteran actor and producer Michael “Mike” Parsons. Their partnership led to "The Monastery", an art workshop in Baguio, which soon became a crucible for their joint creative endeavours. Significant arrivals from Japan—an etching press and a brand new 16mm SLR Canon Scoopic—further solidified their multimedia aspirations.

Finding Nellie: Documenting Local History follows archaeologist Ellie De Castro’s two-year search to uncover a 71-year old mystery behind Nellie E. Brown Elementary School, a public school in Olongapo City. What began as a simple question became a transpacific historical investigation spanning public and private archives, cemeteries, military records, oral histories, and community memories in the Philippines and abroad.

While the world is lost in screens, a young Kalinga girl – untouched by the pull of technology – brings a handmade instrument to class, carrying the voice of her ancestors and inspiring a quiet yet powerful return to cultural pride.

The film traces the fierce delicacy of tiny lives — flickering between serenity and violence, survival and surrender.

The Philippines has one of the biggest diaspora of overseas workers in the world. The term Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) is well-known due to this. While the media has always acknowledged the big sacrifices that OFWs make in order to provide for their children an opportunity to live a better life than what they were given, no one talks about the perspective of the children who are left behind, having to grow up and face life without the presence of their parents. This film features Joanna, a Filipina in her mid-20s who has little to no connection left with her OFW mother. As she faces adulthood, she must decide if she wants to let go of her past. Bahay-Bahayan follows Joanna as she reels back to her past through memory and nostalgia.

Anke is about to leave her small German town in the Black Forest region, while Lisa finds it hard to feel at home there. They meet by chance on a cold, grey autumn day, and wander the streets together. Cracks in the thin membrane between reality and dream transform their stroll into a journey to new places.

A 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜-𝙤𝙛-𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙨𝙘𝙞-𝙛𝙞 𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙖 where Sophie steps into lenses that blur memory and reality, taking her on a mysterious and emotional journey through love, loss, and all that lingers in between.

In the midst of a school film competition, two students take divergent paths as directors—one leading with collaboration, the other with control. As tensions rise and creativity is tested, both must face the consequences of their leadership styles in pursuit of the same prize.

​A cement factory, a crowded urban city, a flooded coastal town, and the Manila Bay intersect to construct the spaces of a developing nation uncertain of its future.

Student journalist Elias reports about a photojournalist that went missing, and walks down a risky path in finding the truth. SIKLO, or Cycle in English, is about the risky cycle of journalism in the Philippines, as faced by Elias the student journalist while trying to uncover what happened to his dad, a photojournalist that went missing.

The fam workers of Hacienda Vicenta in La Castellana town in Negros Occidental are fighting for their right to own land under the Philippines’ Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). They were promised in 2012 that they will each get about one hectare of land each. But in 2021, as their collective title was being processed, the Department of Agrarian Reform granted the application of the landowner for land use conversiona

A man is forever haunted by an unfortunate encounter with a lone hitchhiker in deserted country roads.

25-year-old Frank lives in a shared space with a close friend. As they talk about difficulty in commuting and employment in the time of pandemic, and his friend’s sudden mention of biking, he now needs to face remembering an event that he long buried in his mind.

As Alliyah comes to terms with her destiny in the world of banana trees, she meets despair with hope and resilience, despite the harsh truths, grief, and loss she encounters in the bed of bananas.

In Southern Philippines, a carefree, spider-obsessed young boy loses his older brother and father in a mine’s collapse, and forced to grow up to look for their bodies in the rubble, only to dig up a web of lies woven together by the powers-that-be, realizing it takes more than a hero’s ransom to extricate his family from the town and its ever-collapsing tunnels.

"Tay Emil, an old padyak driver struggling to renew his franchise, forms an unlikely bond with a young sampaguita vendor, but encounters an incident that will send his wheels tripping."

A film starring comedian Chiquito

In 2005, an incoming college freshman struggles to choose between his passion for filmmaking and fulfilling his father's dream of becoming an engineer, while holding two college acceptance letters, he must decide which path will shape his future.

Through the eyes of a farmer's daughter, the land bears witness to generations of struggle and sacrifice, as she grapples with the choice to embrace the dust they call their own or chase a future beyond the fields.

Eager to create a unique film entry for a festival, filmmaker Axl and his crew spent days locked within a defunct university.

Chronic Kidney Disease knows no age or background. Through the stories of Gina, a former OFW, and a young patient, this documentary exposes the universal vulnerability to CKD and the difference between life on dialysis and life at ease

In a political campaign promise, we see a goal that has turned into mere aspiration—now nothing more than a dream. Like a bad grain of rice, the promise has withered away, left inside a container of pledges—unopened and unfulfilled. A questionable small move was made by the administration, an effort to justify a blinding promise. The 20 pesos/kilo implementation promise doesn’t only hurt Filipino consumers but also farmers. While the price of rice per kilogram is skyrocketing, the farmgate price remains painfully low. It is a cycle in every election, leading the Filipino people to believe in false and empty promises, only to be hindered by nature and human neglect. When will this cycle end? Who knows.

In diaspora, Bella, a Sama Bajau indigenous sea nomad transgender woman, reclaims her identity, livelihood, and mobility.

Diwata is a performance for camera, exploring precolonial Philippine mythology from a contemporary, ecotransfeminist lens.

One night, a religious freshman had his fate predicted only to find out it resonated with his situation.

A girl discovers her mother’s memory box, revealing all her mother’s bittersweet recollection of her old friend, Amor.

A short film by Kyle Demot.

A short film by Carmelite Grace Alipalo.

A short film by Samantha Santelices.

A short thesis film by Aura Jade Pepito

Wanting to satisfy his pregnant sister’s craving for sarsiadong duhay, Baste goes through an arduous journey through the market, port, and even the sea, in search for a specific fish that was once of abundance in their town.

After his long-awaited project is abruptly rejected, a young man finds himself at a breaking point. As he moves through the noise of the city and his fragmented memories, he confronts the weight of disappointment, emotional labor, and unresolved trauma.

a short film by Marco Leanardo Cusi

As the tide rises and falls, the film revolves around a journeys through the hidden wonders of Sibuyan Island, uncovering stories of heritage, hardship, and hope—woven together by nature, history, and the unbreakable spirit of its people.

A teenager wants to study next school year but may not be able to continue due to the influence of drugs.

Sam, late 20s, with a psychological condition, finds himself lost on the road, struggling with blurry memories and a heavy sense of guilt. He tries to piece together what really happened, but as paranoia grows, reality starts slipping away, making him question everything around him. The deeper he searches for the truth, the darker it becomes. But as his mind unravels, one question remains—can he trust his own memories, or is his mind playing tricks on him?

a short film by Ricky Orellana

A Palawan myth. Suring invokes the spell of Parimanis, a spell of absolute beauty, and befriends a Kuk-ok, a creature whose fingers are stuck together and can transform into any form, including Suring's.

After almost two years of a class full of unique personas and flairs, at last, 12 STEM 1 stars in a limited documentary feature series as they paint the academic year with high flying colors.

Jesse, the enigmatic, quiet, and quaint must attempt to find the closure within himself along with his two friends — while entangled within the shackles of modern-day discrimination and prejudice of what it means to be confused, young, queer, and everything else in between. In attempts to ask the right questions on desire and dreams later forms an open letter; a juvenile inquiry on growth, love, friendship and acceptance of the unknown, right on the cusp of the last few moments of blissful high school, and the brunt of the beginning of college.

Alex navigates his way through his early 20s. A guy from the province living and working in the city. A creative artist forced to write programs to earn. A man exploring how something—or someone—different can be normal. Alex, a sexually confused adolescent, explores the life of using a dating app after succumbing to pressure.

Through body and movement, a fallen angel learns to surrender herself to the power, beauty, and violence of love.

One night, a girl working at a computer shop is waiting for her online boyfriend to arrive when she is interrupted by an elderly man who requires assistance.