Piracy, Not a Favor. Cinemalaya Filmmaker Calls Out Newest “Distributor”
A fan-built database promised to make Cinemalaya more accessible. Filmmaker Dustin Celestino says it’s doing that by linking straight to pirated films.
All posts tagged: film
Filipinos Are Still Going to the Movies. They’re Just Being Pickier About Which Ones
Metro Manila has spent most of August under Habagat — the southwest monsoon that floods the city’s streets on a schedule closer to weekly than seasonal — and people have still been crossing town for Cinemalaya. The past week’s heavy weather hasn’t stopped Filipinos from flocking to malls and theaters for this year’s lineup, ticket-runs and all. That’s not a small detail for a festival built on films most of its audience had never heard of a month ago. Cinemalaya — the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ independent film festival, now in its 22nd year — is having its longest run ever this August: 13 days, August 6 to 18, up from its usual Friday-to-Sunday weekend format, screening nine full-length films and 10 shorts across Shangri-La Plaza, Ayala Malls, and Gateway Cineplex. The Balanghai Trophy — the festival’s award, named for the balangay, the plank-built outrigger boat early Filipino seafarers used to move between islands — goes out August 17. Results aren’t in yet as of this writing. [Update: See the results below]. That timing …
Spider-Man Keeps Finding Me at the Right Age
A charity screening, three actors, and two decades of birthdays — why the new Spider-Man movie hits differently depending on how old you are when the lights go down.
Cinemalaya 2026: The Cleaner, the Tee Girl, and the 9 Films in Competition
This year’s Cinemalaya bookends read like a matched pair: an undocumented Filipina scrubbing floors at a luxury Swiss ski resort, and a teenager racking golf balls at an elite Manila-adjacent country club. One end of the labor chain and the other, both getting the festival’s biggest slots. Pairing a previously-garlanded, non-competing film with the opening and closing nights is Cinemalaya tradition, not a 2026 innovation — 2018 opened with a mainstream Erik Matti thriller, 2015 opened with a film that had already played Cannes, and 2022’s opener, Leonor Will Never Die, had already won a Special Jury Award at Sundance before it played here — nearly the identical path Filipiñana just took. What’s sharper this time isn’t the structure. It’s the pairing itself: Enjoy Your Stay and Filipiñana sit at opposite ends of the same axis — who does the invisible labor, and who benefits from not noticing it — and both landed real hardware at Berlinale and Sundance doing it. Enjoy Your Stay, directed by Dominik Locher with a script by Honeylyn Joy Alipio, …
The 8 MMFF 2025 Films You Should Know This Year
For the first time in two or three years, we’re finally back to watching the Metro Manila Film Festival the way we used to. No shortcuts, no half-attending, no “maybe next year.” Just the familiar excitement of stepping into a cinema on a December night, lining up with families and barkadas, and immersing ourselves in Filipino stories during the holidays. And honestly — wala, ang sarap lang sa feeling. We missed this festival more than we realized. This year, MMFF welcomes us back with a lineup that feels different — not just bigger, but braver and more varied. ⸻ WHY THIS YEAR’S MMFF FEELS DIFFERENT If you’ve followed the festival over the years, you’ll notice right away: MMFF 2025 doesn’t look like the typical holiday lineup. This year feels like a reset. A recalibration. Maybe even a quiet revolution. Here’s why: 1. The Variety is Surprisingly Strong A queer parenthood comedy-drama, a representation-led film starring actors with Down syndrome, a 1969 period thriller, a future-set horror anthology, a legal drama about annulment, a Gen Z …