‘A Useful Ghost’ Wins Best Picture At Philippines’ QCinema Film Festival
Akio Fujimoto's Lost Land was awarded the Grand Jury Prize, while Chie Hayakawa's Renoir took best director and performance.
Debut features and sophomore efforts dominated awards night at the QCinema International Film Festival, which closed its 13th edition on November 23, 2025.
In Asian Next Wave, the festival’s flagship competition highlighting Asian auteurs, two Cannes-premiering titles each secured two major wins. Thai filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost took home Best Picture, with production designer Rasiguet Sookkarn receiving the Artistic Achievement Award.
Meanwhile, Renoir earned Japanese sophomore director Chie Hayakawa and young actress Yui Suzuki awards for Best Director and Best Performance, respectively.
The Asian Next Wave jury, headed by Filipino actor and Venice Volpi Cup winner John Arcilla, also awarded the Jury Prize to Akio Fujimoto’s Lost Land, a road film about Rohingya refugees attempting to reunite with their family in Malaysia.
Janus Victoria’s Diamonds In The Sand, starring Lily Franky as a Japanese salaryman discovering a different way of living in the Philippines, was awarded Best Screenplay.
In RainbowQC, the festival’s feature film competition dedicated to LGBTQIA+ stories, another Cannes title – Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo – claimed Best LGBTQ+ Film.
The jury, headded by Filipino filmmaker Petersen Vargas, commended the film for “remind[ing] us of the enduring importance of resilience, community, and the so-called chosen family, while celebrating the power of a fierce, defiantly queer optimism in the face of discrimination and stigma.”
Jaume Claret Muxart’s directorial debut Strange River received the Jury Prize while Divine Sung’s Summer’s Camera earned a Special Mention “for capturing the awkwardness and thrills of a young girl’s queer awakening.”
In New Horizons, QCinema’s competition for first features, Siyou Tan’s Amoeba won Best Film. The jury, headed by Filipino filmmaker Martika Ramirez Escobar – praised it “for its strikingly original vision, its powerful depiction of adolescent defiance within a tightly controlled world and the sensitive and incisive direction.”
Sophy Romvari’s Locarno and Toronto-lauded film Blue Heron took home the Jury Prize, and Reza Rahadian’s On Your Lap was presented the NETPAC Jury Prize for Best Asian First Film.
In QCShorts International, JT Trinidad’s Honey, My Love, So Sweet was awarded Best Short Film “for its lush atmosphere, dynamic mise-en-scene, and touching dramatisation of the paradoxes of first love.” Lin Htet Aung’s Tiger Award-winning experimental film A Metamorphosis received the Jury Prize.
The Serrano Sisters’ Surface Tension earned best short film among the six of the festival’s local grantees while Negros-based filmmaker Dale received the Gender Sensitivity Award for Si Kara: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba Daba. The QCShorts jury was headed by critic and programmer Chris Fujiwara.
For the third edition of the QCinema Critics Lab, Lebron Ponce, a student film critic and filmmaker from Leyte, was awarded the Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc Award for Emerging Film Criticism.
The Critics Prize – decided upon by an eight-person jury of QCinema Critics Lab participants – went to two films: Norvin de los Santos’ magic-realist homecoming tale Hoy, Hoy, Ingat! and Dale’s experimental environmental allegory Si Kara: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba Daba.
QCinema wrapped its thirteenth edition shortly after Quezon City was named a UNESCO Creative City of Film in late October, joining Ho Chi Minh City as one of only two cities in Southeast Asia with this distinction.
QCINEMA INT'L FILM FESTIVAL 2025:
ASIAN NEXT WAVE:
Best Picture: A Useful Ghost, dir: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Grand Jury Prize: Lost Land, dir: Akio Fujimoto
Best Director: Chie Hayakawa, Renoir
Best Performance: Yui Suzuki, Renoir
Best Screenplay: Janus Victoria, Diamonds In The Sand
Award for Artistic Achievement: Rasiguet Sookkarn for Production Design, A Useful Ghost
NEW HORIZONS:
Best Film: Amoeba, dir: Siyou Tan
Jury Prize: Blue Heron, dir: Sophy Romvari
NETPAC Prize for Best Asian First Film: On Your Lap, dir: Reza Rahadian
RAINBOWQC:
Best LGBTQ+ Film: The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo, dir: Diego Céspedes
Jury Prize: Strange River, dir: Jaume Claret Muxart
Special Mention: Summer’s Camera, dir: Divine Sung
QCSHORTS INTERNATIONAL:
Best Short Film: Honey, My Love, So Sweet, dir: JT Trinidad (Philippines)
Jury Prize: A Metamorphosis, dir: Lin Htet Aung (Myanmar)
Best Short Film (QCShorts Lokal): Surface Tension, dir: The Serrano Sisters (Philippines)
Gender Sensitivity Award: Si Kara: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba Daba, dir: Dale (Philippines)
Special Mention: Little Rebels Cinema Club, dir: Khozy Rizal (Indonesia)
Critics Prize: Hoy, Hoy, Ingat!, dir: Norvin de los Santos (Philippines) and Si Kara: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba Daba, dir. Dale (Philippines)
CRITICS LAB:
Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc Award for Emerging Film Criticism: Lebron Ponce
