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Hiligaynon short film ‘Hasang’: A surreal, indigenous view of global warming

ILOILO CITY – The art of filmmaking goes beyond mere entertainment. Creativity fuels passion, but it also allows the filmmaker to express the truth about the society that the viewers are a part of. For 24-year-old Daniel dela Cruz, the director of the award-winning short film “Hasang (Gills),” this meant going back to the roots...

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Storytelling, design, and government initiatives: How are the Korean and Philippine film industries different?

South Korea’s film industry seems to be doing well looking in from the outside. According to data from the Korean Film Council (Kofic) on 2024 local box office hits, “Exhuma” was No. 1 with a total gross of $82,686,501 (11,914,785 tickets sold); “The Round-up: Punishment” was No. 2 with a total gross of $82,674,629 (11,...

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Joey Reyes on PH’s Oscar chances, restoring film classics, and corruption in gov’t

We had high hopes for the beleaguered local film industry after the Metro Manila Film Festival’s (MMFF) sumptuous cinematic buffet last December and the CinePanalo competition in March. But in the five months that followed the MMFF, big-screen duds (like “Ex Ex Lovers,” “Everything About My Wife”) quickly outnumbered small cinematic gems like Derick Cabrido’s...

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Viola Davis packs a mean punch as a crime-busting US president

Long before Hollywood actress Viola Davis turned the quasihistorical 2022 film “The Woman King” into a No. 1 blockbuster, she was already looking for “Die Hard”-channeling action heroines to portray onscreen.  In a statement released last week, Davis recalled meeting with the filmmakers behind “G20” for the first time in 2016. Helmed by Patricia Riggen,...

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The personal is political in ‘And So It Begins’

Let’s get one thing out of the way: “And So It Begins” is not a film about the 2022 Robredo-Pangilinan campaign. The lawyer Leni Robredo herself made this clear as an introduction to the crowd gathered for the Philippine premiere of the latest documentary by Ramona S. Diaz. The plan had been to film a...

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Why Gawad Urian is a rare film awards night

The Gawad Urian of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP) is a rare film recognition event in show business. Every year, the awards night of this group of critics is something to look forward to. Since the Urian’s inception in 1976, the state of the local movie industry has always been the central and confining...

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Ricky Lee’s birthday party was a wedding like no other

I kept gushing about the arrangements at his party and our dear birthday boy, National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee, replied that if he would get married, it would also be potluck. But I was talking about his wedding! On his 77th birthday last March 19, Xavierville Clubhouse was transformed into some kind of wedding...