Streamlined Guides: Updates To Philippines Market
Philippine cinema had a strong start to 2026 with titles screening and winning awards at the three big winter international film festivals – Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin. But back at home, the Philippines is among the Asian territories in which box office recovery has been slow since the pandemic, and while Netflix recently announced a large slate of local-language content, many local media groups and production companies face economic headwinds. On the bright side, the local festival circuit continues to support independent filmmaking, as does the Film Development Council of the Philipppines (FDCP) and Quezon City Screen Commission (ScreenQC).
This edition of the Streamlined Guides provides updates to the two editions dedicated to the Philippines published in mid-2024. Streamlined Guides are totally funded by readers so the information in the report has been researched independently of any financial support from advertisers and/or film agencies. Contact details are not included in the report, but paid subscribers can DM me to discuss the best way to approach listed companies, with Founding Member subscribers receiving priority on their queries.
LINKS TO 2024 STREAMLINED GUIDE TO THE PHILIPPINES:
Liz Shackleton
Liz Shackleton
UPDATES ON INDEPENDENT CINEMA:
Philippine cinema was strongly represented on the international festival circuit in the first few months of 2026, with Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana playing at Sundance and the Perspectives competition of Berlinale, while Isabel Sandoval’s noir crime thriller Moonglow premiered in the Big Screen Competition of International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Filipiñana, about a young girl working at a Manila golf club, was awarded Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision and was acquired for North American distribution by Kino Lorber. Moonglow, about the orchestrator of a heist being roped into investigating the very crime she committed, was picked up for international sales by UK-based sales agent Film Republic.
Several other Philippine films screened at Rotterdam, including I Grew An Inch When My Father Died, a coming-of-age tale directed by P. R. Monencillo Patindol, about two boys experiencing both grief and freedom following their abusive father’s murder, which had its world premiere in the Bright Future section.
Rotterdam's Limelight section screened Lav Diaz’s Cannes 2025 title Magellan and Jerrold Tarog’s historical biopic Quezon, which were both released theatrically in the Philippines last year. The Harbour section had Carl Joseph E. Papa’s animated feature 58th, set during the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, and James J. Robinson’s Philippines-Australia collaboration First Light, about a nun troubled by the circumstances surrounding the death of a construction worker.
Berlinale’s Panorama section premiered Ryan Machado’s Raging, about a sexual abuse survivor who witnesses a plane crash in the jungle; and Swiss director Dominik Locher’s Enjoy Your Stay, starring Mercedes Cabral, whose credits include several Brillante Mendoza films, playing an undocumented overseas worker in Switzerland.
Such a strong showing across all three of the big winter international festivals highlights how Philippine cinema is evolving beyond the point around a decade ago when only a handful of filmmakers – Lav Diaz, Brillante Mendoza and Erik Matti – were breaking through at an international level. In recent years, emerging talent is being supported both by government agencies such as the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) and Quezon City Screen Commission (ScreenQC), as well as local film festivals, including QCinema, Cinemalaya and CinePanalo, which fund short films and features through grants (see festivals section below for more details).
