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‘ANG PANAHON NG HALIMAW (SEASON OF THE DEVIL)’ (2018)

Maestro Lav Diaz returns to Berlinale after previous Epicmedia produced “A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery” won the Silver Bear.

In the late 70s, a gang of militias, under the control of the military, terrorizes a remote village in the Philippines.The terror being inflicted on the populace is not just corporal but intensely psychological as well. They were constantly fed with apocryphal tales about the village leader. A few souls are not giving up. They are fighting. The poet/teacher/activist, Hugo Haniway, decides to find out the truth about the disappearance of his wife. A love story set in the darkest period of Philippine history, the Marcos Dictatorship. The narrative and the characters are a composite of real events and real people that happened and existed during the period.

A Filipino rock opera.

PRODUCING PARTNERS: Globe Studios • Sine Olivia Pilipinas

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Berlinale 2018 (Main Competition

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‘SI CHEDENG AT SI APPLE (CHEDENG AND APPLE)’ (2017)

Debuting directors Fatrick Tabada and Rae Red team up for a no-holds-barred dramatic comedy, Si Chedeng At Si Apple. In the wake of her husband's death, Chedeng, 66, decides to come out of the closet. Her best friend Apple, 63, beheads her live-in partner in a fit of rage. Bound by friendship, the two elderly women, together with the severed head placed inside a Louis Vuitton bag, set off an adventure to find Chedeng's ex-girlfriend.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Cinema One Originals FF

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‘THOSE LONG HAIRED NIGHTS’ (2017)

Gerardo Calagui’s sophomore feature film is a story of three transgenders trying to find love, family and money in the chaotic red light district of Manila. Tuesday is looking for love, Amanda is searching for family, and Barbie… well, Barbie just can’t stay away from trouble. Those Long Haired Nights follows the three transgender prostitutes and their pimp through their harried and unpredictable working hours in Manila’s hotels, massage parlours, streets – and one lush visit to the country. 

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Busan International Film Festival • QCinema IFF •  Hawaii IFF •  Thessaloniki IFF • San Diego Asian FF • Cinematografo IFF • Taipei Golden Horse FF •  Black Movie Geneva International Independent Film Festival

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‘PATAY NA SI HESUS (JESUS IS DEAD)’ (2016)

Victor Villanueva’s sophomore feature film stars Jaclyn Jose (Cannes 2016 Best Actress Winner) as Iyay, a fierce mother who learns that Hesus, her ex-husband, has died. She gathers her children and tells them they are going on a road trip from Cebu City to Dumaguete. No ifs or buts about it: they are attending their father's funeral. Her children – Hubert, who has Down Syndrome; Jude, a lovesick trans man; and Jay, who is living the bum life – join her with varying degrees of reluctance as she drives them in her extra-mini mini-van. One unplanned detour comes after another, each pushing this family closer to confronting the past and figuring out how to enjoy the ride to an uncertain future.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: QCinema IFF •  Frameline IFF •  New Filipino Cinema • TWIST Seattle Queer FF • Cinematografo • NewFest •  Taiwan International Queer FF •  Gender Bender FF •  Toronto Reel Asian IFF

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‘SINGING IN GRAVEYARDS’ (2016)

Bradley Liew's debut feature film, Singing In Graveyards tells the tale of Pepe, a 68 year old impersonator of a Filipino rock legend, lives alone on the borders of reality, imagination and mysticism. One day, he’s finally given the chance to open for the rock legend’s concert but he must do something neither of them has done before - write a love song. 

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Venice International Film Critics’ Week • Busan IFF • QCinema IFF • Mostra Sao Paulo IFF • Hawaii IFF • Minsk IFF Listapad • Thessaloniki IFF • Kolkata IFF (WINNER BEST FILM) • Entrevous Belfort IFF • Salamindanaw IFF • Jogja Netpac Asian FF • Singapore IFF • Glasgow IFF • Malaysia IFF (WINNER BEST FILM) • Osaka Asian FF • CAAMFEST San Fransisco •  Vilnius IFF • Fribourg IFF • Bangkok ASEAN FF • Cinemalaya FF • Pacific Meridian IFF Vladivostok • Shanghai IFF • Taipei IFF 

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‘HELE SA HIWAGANG HAPIS (A LULLABY TO THE SORROWFUL MYSTERY)’ (2016)

Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro is considered to be one of the most influential proponents in the struggle against Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines during the late nineteenth century. Today, he is still celebrated as the father of the Philippine Revolution. Director Lav Diaz examines this myth and undertakes another expedition into the eventful history of his native land. The film’s various loosely interwoven narrative threads are held together by an exploration of the role of the individual in history and their involvement in political and social developments. Bonifacio’s widow is searching for her husband’s missing dead body; as she and her followers stumble deeper into the jungle, they become entangled in the dense thicket of their own guilt and responsibility. The Spanish governor tries to play off the various rebel factions and their utopian visions against each other. At the same time, a badly wounded companion of Bonifacio reflects upon the victims a revolution inevitably creates. The film’s high-contrast black-and-white photography makes the journey into the past abstract. Mythology, facts and a vibrant sense of history merge.

PRODUCING PARTNERS: Ten17P • Potocol.

WINNER: BERLINALE SILVER BEAR

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‘MISS BULALACAO’ (2015)

Debut filmmaker Ara Chawdhury’s “Miss Bulalacao” is about a young drag queen, Dodong, who joins a barangay (village) gay pageant to gain acceptance in his father’s community. He instead faces hostility from his father, who chases him to a jungle, where he sobs to a lone bright star. What follows is the strangest night in his entire life, and an even stranger nine months when he realizes he is pregnant. With only his stepmother, Lisa, as a support, Dodong deals with ridicule from the people who do not believe him – until his predicament becomes a tabloid headline: “Bakla, ina ng Diyos!”

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Cinema One Originals FF - Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress • Seoul International Women’s FF • Bangkok Gay & Lesbian FF • Durban IFF • Dharamshala IFF

PRODUCING PARTNER: Cinema One Originals

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‘KAPATIRAN’ (2015)

With the deadly fraternity wars among Filipino youth as a starting point Pepe Diokno’s third film, “Kapatiran”. becomes a cinematic essay about the filmmaker's hometown of Manila. Blurring fact and film together, it is a bleak, disjointed portrait of a disjointed city; a meditation on its social cancer.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: QCinema IFF • Karlovy Vary IFF

PRODUCING PARTNERS: QCinema • Potocol (Singapore)

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’SWAP’ (2015)

Remton Siega Zuasola’s “Swap” takes us to the internal conflict of a young father, torn between solving a crime and committing another crime when one day his only son is kidnapped and the criminals demand him to steal another kid in exchange of his son's life.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: San Sebastian IFF • Silk Road IFF • San Diego Asian Film Festival • Sao Paulo IFF • Tokyo Filmex • Jogja-Netpac IFF - Silver Hanunam Award • CinemAsia Amsterdam

PRODUCING PARTNER: Sinag Maynila

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‘Single / Single’

A romantic comedy television series about the lives of Manila’s millenials, “Single/Single” stars Shaina Magdayao and Matteo Guidicelli as two strangers who are forced to share an apartment. 

PRODUCING PARTNERS: The Philippine STAR • ABS-CBN • Cinema One

CLIENTS: Sun Life • Avida Land • Metrobank • Ford Motors • Samsung

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BEAST (2015)

A feature film debut by Australian brothers Sam and Tom McKeith shot in the Philippines. Deep in the slums of Manila, a young boxer’s life is changed forever when his father pressures him to cheat in a fight.

FESTIVALS: Toronto IFF • Warsaw Film Festival • Adelaide IFF • Singapore IFF

PRODUCING PARTNERS: Boulevard Film (Australia)

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‘THAT THING CALLED TADHANA’ (2014)

Antoinette Jadaone’s Philippine box office hit grossing over Php 130 million, “That Thing Called Tadhana” tells the story of a woman, struggling to meet airline baggage requirements, who meets a man who comes to her aid. Both in despair out of love, they form a charming friendship that will take them to Sagada in their attempts to mend each other’s hearts.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Osaka Asian Film Festival • Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival • New Filipino Cinema San Francisco • BiFan - Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival • Guam International Film Festival

PRODUCING PARTNERS: Cinema One Originals • Star Cinema (distribution)

PHILIPPINE BOX OFFICE: Php 130 Million

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‘ABOVE THE CLOUDS' (2014)

After his parents die in a flood, 15-year-old Andy embarks on a journey with his estranged grandfather to the cold northern mountains of the Philippines. Written and directed by Pepe Diokno, this Filipino-French co-production stars newcomer Ruru Madrid and Filipino rock legend Pepe Smith.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Tokyo IFF • Singapore IFF

PRODUCING PARTNERS: ATC Motion Pictures • Heaven’s Best • Unlimited (France) • Aide Aux Cinema Du Monde • Visions Sud Est • Asian Cinema Fund • Globe Telecom

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‘THE UNDERTAKER’ (2014)

In this charming documentary by Italian filmmaker Andrea Capranico, young Ivan, a culinary school dropout from Manila, tries to find his place in the world at a cemetery.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: Singapore IFF

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‘SOAP OPERA’ (2014)

Desperately finding ways to support their sickly child, Noel and Liza welcomes a new addition to their family — Ben, a rich white man who is hoping to build a family of his own. Together they play the game of deceit and make believe, but the truth is far from being hidden as the daily soap operas vividly mirror what they have been hiding all along. Written and directed by Remton Siega Zuasola.

PRODUCING PARTNER: Cinema One Originals

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‘BENDOR’ (2013)

Written and directed by Ralson Jover, the film follows an obscure 55-year old woman who experiences life’s absurdities at the crossroad of her journey through an old age. Played by Vivian Velez, Blondie lives a contemplative daily life as a candle vendor around the periphery of Quaipo Church. On the side, she sells illegal pills of Cytotec, an abortifacient, serving desperate pregnant clients. The story covers 3 days in her outrageously unusual life.

PRODUCING PARTNER: Cinema One Originals.

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‘PROLOGO SA DAKILANG DESPARECIDO (PROLOGUE TO THE GREAT DESAPARECIDO)’ (2012)

Filipino film legend Lav Diaz’s teaser to an upcoming masterpiece, this 30-minute film follows the search of Gregoria de Jesus for the body of her slain husband, national hero Andres Bonifacio.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: San Sebastian Film Festival • International Film Festival Rotterdam

PRODUCING PARTNER: Dissidenz Films (France)