The seven CinePanalo features get the marquee treatment, but the festival’s actual footprint this week is bigger — here’s everything else screening, and how to actually get in.
Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival 2026 opens today, running through October 4. The seven full-length finalists — “Apol of My Ai,” “Beast,” “Mono No Aware,” “Multwoh (Patay na Patay Sa’yo),” “Patay Gutom,” “Stuck on You,” and “Wantawsan” — are the films getting individual coverage this week, ElysPlanet’s included. But the festival’s actual footprint this opening day is bigger than seven films: a brand-new short film section and a full slate of student work are screening alongside them, and neither has gotten a fraction of the attention.
Panorama Shorts: The Festival’s First-Ever Short Film Section
This is the first year CinePanalo has run a dedicated short film competition outside the student category, and it’s exclusive to one venue: Gateway Cineplex 18 Araneta, the festival’s hub. Ten independent shorts were selected — completed films that hadn’t yet had a Philippine theatrical run — giving them a big-screen premiere they otherwise might not have gotten.
“Through the Panorama Shorts Section, we have found ten recently completed gems and will premiere them on the big screen,” festival chair Ivy Hayagan-Piedad said of the new section.
The ten selections:
- “Alien Girl!” — dir. Juliana Skye Q. Estaris
- “Aninaw” — dir. Arthur Benedict Dugan Eustaquio
- “Gatecrashers” — dir. Mark Francis Daniel T. Vicente
- “Lip Skimming” — dir. Gian Arre
- “Narito Ako: A Digital Afterlife” — dir. Miguel Lorenzo Peralta
- “pansamantagalan” — dir. Jiean Lanz Llave
- “PINAGKAISAHAN” — dir. Angela Jed Silvestre-Placino
- “Plop” — dir. Angela Isabelle Colada
- “The Other Side of Reality” — dir. Zig Dulay
- “Unti-unti” — dir. Genevieve Gallaga
Zig Dulay is the one name on that list a mainstream audience is likely to recognize — a Metro Manila Film Festival Best Director nominee (for 2023’s “Firefly” and 2024’s “Green Bones”), a multiple Cinemalaya winner, and the director behind GMA’s hit series “Maria Clara at Ibarra.” Having a filmmaker with that résumé submit a short to a brand-new, unproven section is its own small vote of confidence in what Panorama Shorts is trying to do.
The Student Shorts: 19 Films, Four Sets, Schools Nationwide
Running alongside Panorama Shorts is CinePanalo’s long-running student short film program — 19 films this year, grouped into four screening sets, pulled from film programs across the country rather than concentrated at one or two schools.
Set A: “Starfish” (John Clite Apolinar), “Kun Hain, Bisan Diin” (Jomarie Reyes), “Kanibal” (Michael Baylon), “Sa Mga Nagdaan at Lumipas” (Ezaldea Carla Fernandez), “Limlim” (Samantha Beatriz Acoja Palaje)
Set B: “Alumahan” (Christian Melvin Arejola), “When Heaven Inched Towards Earth” (Vinh Marco), “No Mad Is an Island” (Carl Geronimo), “Tingi” (Rowan De Aro), “Ang Huling Banlaw ni Susan” (Hezekiah Estorque)
Set C: “Pulis Dunggab” (Maxine Dela Bajan), “The Sound of K” (Jay Gabriel Cañada), “Nakabinbin” (Carlo Gula), “Nang Matakasan ang Tagay” (Giancarlo Santiago)
Set D: “Teks Battle: Shoot Pati Pato!” (John Russel Capule), “Kapag Tapos na ang Umpukan” (Justine Lee Estinor), “12 Shots” (Minnesota Flores), “Bumtak Sara ti Nuangen” (Lloyd Pereira), “Miss Intrams” (Henri Marie Belimac)
The student filmmakers behind these sets are studying at schools spanning Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao — Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of the Philippines campuses in Diliman, Visayas, Mindanao, and its Open University, Visayas State University, City of Malabon University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Manila, St. Dominic College of Asia, iACADEMY Cebu, Manuel Enverga University Foundation, and Tanza National Comprehensive High School among them — a wider geographic spread than the festival’s own feature lineup, which skews toward established Manila-based talent.
Getting In: Dates, Prices, and the Pass Timing That Actually Matters Today
Puregold CinePanalo 2026 runs September 23 through October 4 across eight Metro Manila venues: Gateway Cineplex 18 Araneta (the hub, and the only venue screening Panorama Shorts), TriNoma, Fairview Terraces, and Ayala Malls Feliz, Circuit, and Manila Bay, plus Market! Market! Student shorts screen at Gateway and select Ayala cinemas.
Regular tickets are ₱250; ₱200 for PWDs, senior citizens, students, national athletes, and Aling Puring & Perks cardholders. The ₱2,000 festival pass covers all seven features plus the full student shorts program, across all four sets. That pass went on sale exclusively at Gateway Cineplex 18 yesterday, September 22 — a full day ahead of everyone else — and today is when general on-sale finally opens at the other seven venues, which is the actual news for anyone who’s been waiting to buy in rather than committing early at Gateway alone.