Discoveries from Philippines World Cinema

Finalist for the 2026 Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival

Philippine action movie

We all have our fantasies. We'd all like to believe that dreams do come true. At least once in our lives, we've dreamed of having the perfect love story. But life isn't a fairy tale. One hopeless romantic. One emotionally unavailable. What could go wrong? After what was originally supposed to be just a hook up, JM and Reb are made to look beyond their desires and genuinely get to know each other better when they’re forced to lockdown with each other. Will 14 days lead to forever?

Three socialite friends get invited to an exclusive party but ends up getting trapped in a human trafficking scam.

After her family is separated after being caught in the crossfire, Meriam sets out to search for those she lost. She learns to face the uncertainty and grim reality that the conflict between Moro rebels and government forces has brought upon her community.

The film is set before the events of Kimmy Dora: Kambal sa Kiyeme wherein the twins are seen disputing the ownership of the family corporation. The film was inspired by the James Bond film series in terms of musical score and visual effects.

Two cocks to a fight, one fight at a time. No time limit. No quarter. And no one gets out of here without a scratch. And sometimes you die. Welcome to the ultraviolent world of cockfighting where the one-armed, one-legged Christ of the cockpit is lord over both man and cock.

A coming-of-age diary of “Leonor Will Never Die”.

Seven-year-old Jolo is a fanboy of wrestling icon Ultimate Warrior. When rumors started to spread that the champion wrestler died from a match, the kid's world started to collapse.

In a world where words and colors collide, two souls find solace in their shared passion for art, embarking on a journey of self-discovery that illuminates the beauty of their own narratives.

A king dreams, and his wisemen interprets his dream in which he will be overthrown. So his conniving jester suggests to kill all the babies but two survives, grows up and fulfills the king's dream.

A retelling of the famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic Shahnameh, pertaining to the event where the great warrior Rustum had his fateful encounter with Sohrab.

A sergeant takes revenge on the American soldiers who destroyed his family.

Two siblings navigate their way to safety through a desolate forest amid a collapsing and divided Philippines in the Year 2035. But as looming threats lurk on their path, their survival lies at their will to fight and survive in a crumbling nation.

A "film expose" from director Boots Plata

In a small town, a painter's art comes to life as he paints idyllic dogs that loll inside the old church merged with an old woman's folk piety. His young daughter witnesses all this as she walks in faith.

An outsider in her own culture, half-Filipina Nia secretly trains with queer outcast Malic to join a popular Filipino Martial Arts team in Manila, only to discover that winning starts with accepting who you truly are.

Because of prison overcrowding, 12 inmates were sent to an island where they must fight and survive for freedom.

Heneral Rizal uncovers the story of Paciano Rizal, usually regarded as the ever-supportive elder brother of the Filipino National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. Unknown to many, Paciano was a proficient general who fought the colonizers, together with Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto. He was instrumental in liberating Calamba during the Philippine Revolution.

Winner of 3 awards. Rendezvous is about a water entity “Balud”, merman, who falls in love with a girl, Mira. It’s a sweet, charming fantasy with waves of zany scenes and ripples of dramatic tensions.

Hazel, a nursing student whose college life has always revolved around her studies, starts wishing for a change of pace. Everything shifts when she meets Luke, sparking a flood of “what ifs” in her mind. Pondering the many possibilities of what could happen, she finally decides to make her move.

Masculinity, race and boyhood simmer in this stylish slow-cinema debut about a Filipino-Australian father and his six-year-old son, who are navigating a family divorce. Exploring the complexities of family, society and culture that shape young Filipinos, this feature debut from rising filmmaker Caleb Ribates depicts the tender relationship between an immigrant father and his young son as they deal with being abandoned by the boy’s mother. With its evocative black-and-white cinematography, long takes and naturalistic dialogue, Anak follows in the footsteps of slow-cinema masters like Lav Diaz and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, while finding an intimacy and tonal register that is all Ribates’ own.

Clarita is a Manila socialite and she and her mother Doña Carmen are addicted to everything modern which they equate to dancing, drinking, smoking and generally having a good time. Clarita meets Antonio, a conservative provincial businessman still living with his very old-fashioned and domineering mother Doña Rosenda. Clarita and Antonio fall in love and rush into a marriage that almost fails because of the constant interference of their respective in-laws.

In a bustling neighborhood in Manila, single father, Bonifacio “Boni” Garcia struggles to read while his young son is top of his class. Wanting to better himself, he returns to first grade, blurring the lines between who is raising who between him and his son.

A young girl, forced by her mother into an online relationship with an elderly man, retreats into a fantasy world inspired by her favorite children's show.

Luna's Grandpa blames her for her father's death, said to have been caused by leptospirosis from intermingling with her poor mother. As the past continues to haunt Luna, she summons a most dreadful visitor into their home.

The film is about Carlo, a man in his mid 20s, trapped in abusive relationship and tries to escape from his live in partner Anna, for a better change.

One night, a mother of five gets drunk. She then spends the rest of the evening expressing her frustrations, inhibitions, and aspirations while her poet son tells all the miseries and shared trauma that bonded them together.

In a cell group gathering, a girl with a quiet and stale guise who always wears red lipstick narrates the present disposition of her cellmates. This girl has a friend named Daisy, whom she frequently mentions in her recounting of the lives of her four other cellmates, Momsh Karen, Mark, and Mae. Just another session of their gathering, in which the girl had already become accustomed to the rhythm of routines, the bell rang and fan the flames of everyone in the room. Amidst that event, the revelation of the girl’s and her cellmate's past stories starts to unravel.

A teenage boy discovers he can use his face massager for...not his face.

An expressionistic story of a soldier’s lament as he lies on his hospital bed 50 years after the Second World War.

The sequel reprises the story of an ugly duckling who turns beautiful with a black dress.

A librarian's husband and mother-in-law turn out to be psychotically abusive. When the husband mistakenly thinks he has killed her, he dumps her in a river, where she is saved by a fisherman. Desperate for money and in need of help to take revenge on her husband, she hooks up with a bank robber whom she falls in love with. Together, they return to her husband's home and kill him.

About an investigation into possible murder of a battered wife whose husband is well known.

Bestfriends Florita and Karina's sensuality are awakened by Nanding, the guy between them, and more so by two thieves on the run who come to their little village.

A religious but unlucky young graduate, tired of hitting rock bottom, turns to Tarot reading to change his fate—even if it means questioning everything he believes in.

Inday Opil navigates the afterlife, eager to reach heaven. She must first embark on a journey untangling the weave of fate to be where she is meant to be.

ENTHRALLING, BEWITCHING, AMAZING. The strange story of a beauty in soc-like balloon which flies, rolls, climbs.

A seventeen-year-old high school student, Mary, and her new friend Josie, a trans youth, embark on a harrowing journey of friendship, fortitude, and compassion to Manila after Mary discovers she's unintentionally pregnant.

Moving picture of the 1911 Taal Volcano eruption.

A film about family planning discusses Filipino values like family togetherness, generosity, sacrifice, and compassion.

Directed By: Agot Mariano Starring: Monique Arcache, Eva Aguirre, Anna Lina, Sharon Ayala, Kris Albino, Boyet Alcala, Greg Amador, Abe Manalo

RUGGED in action, RAW in romance.

The story of a Filipino migrant in Brisbane and her fight for the custody of her Filipino children.

A mail-order bride on her way to her dreams.

Kadu, a boy from Pakil, Laguna, experiences the dissolution of tradition as it gives way to capitalism in the form of Madame, a foreigner who initially came to their village as a customer during the Festival of Turumba.

A story about a man who just got out of jail and wanted to turn over a new leaf.

A young woman revisiting memories of a lost love days before Martial Law is proclaimed -- an old, jaded mechanic -- a young man on his way to the countryside encountering a host of militia men and their tortured captive -- these are stories of forgotten hopes, of wearied struggles, of memories lost. Can they still be ever found?

A chronicle on the life & times of Juan.

A story focusing on a elite law school fraternity, it follows a week in the lives of a neophyte, a master, and a lawyer alumnus, and crosses the lines of money, power and connections within Manila’s society.