It wouldn’t be until December 2022 that Philippine cinemas would see some sustained action from local films again. That was because the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) was held in-person in cinemas across the country for only the second time since the pandemic began. But beyond MMFF, Philippine cinema had already demonstrated signs of rejuvenation post-lockdown, with Dolly De Leon being feted in Cannes, the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival returning to in-person screenings, and new life springing from the numerous short films that kept audiences interested while full-length films were few and far between.
In a year that the Philippine government ditched face masks as the minimum protection against Covid-19 (though most Filipinos still opt to wear face masks, a government survey revealed), Philippine cinemas have enjoyed a steady stream of viewers. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, released in May, quickly became the highest grossing film of 2022 in the Philippines with an opening weekend of US$5,328,592. More movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe followed suit, including Thor: Love and Thunder and Wakanda Forever. By the time the annual Metro Manila Film Festival swung into theatres at the end of the year, audiences were so hungry for new Filipino films outside the streaming circuit that the festival achieved a combined gross of ₱500 million (US$9,104,325). The festival’s highest grossing film, the horror Deleter, earned ₱234 million (US$4,260,122), according to unofficial reports.
The highest-grossing Filipino film of the year, apparently, is Maid in Malacañang, a propaganda film that sanitizes the image of the Marcoses (whose son, Ferdinand Jr. is currently sitting as the country’s president – he won by a significant margin against his competitor). The “apparently” is there since even Wikipedia itself cites the reference of the box office count (₱750,000,000 or US$41,275,500) as “unreliable source?”
Even before the President declared the voluntary wearing of masks in September, Philippine cinema was getting back its legs. A steady stream of films online – with Vivamax still pumping out the most films, putting out at least three every month, though with only a few worthy releases – have kept a segment of actors and filmmakers busy. Film festivals were bright and booming, eager to take revenge against the pandemic. The always well-attended Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival held on-site screenings for the first time since the pandemic began, and included new full-length features after screening only short films online since 2020. QCinema International Film Festival continued combining some of the best films from Southeast Asia with the most lauded international films from the big film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, etc. Outside Metro Manila, the Ngilngig Asian Fantastic Film Festival in Davao City showcased some of the best Filipino genre films, old and new, and established a well of short films from exciting Filipino filmmakers.
But in 2022, it is noticeable how many filmmakers have opted to venture into the limited series territory. Directors Antoinette Jadaone and Dan Villegas’ production company Project8 Films produced several TV series last year – all of which appeared on several online streaming platforms – including the hit sex comedy The Kangks Show (directed by Jadaone), the coming of age series The Seniors, the sports drama Suntok sa Buwan (with several episodes directed by Villegas), the lesbian romance Sleep with Me (directed by Samantha Lee), and even a drag competition show called Drag Den which was hosted by Drag Race alum Manila Luzon (and directed by filmmaker Rod Singh).
In an interview with Jadaone, she disclosed that they were pitching both films and series to OTTs, but they were greenlighting more series than films. For filmmakers like Jadaone, in a time of scarcity, it was also just a matter of telling stories. When asked about the difference between producing movies and series, she said that though they’re both telling stories, they’re different mediums and worlds. Their only experience and exposure to series before was the teleseryes – the daily shows that had no planned endings. So producing limited series was a refreshing and welcome challenge.
Coming from a culture that has come to know shows that run and feel like soap operas (some have up to a thousand episodes and are aired daily), the concept of the limited series is new. Everything is changeable: the show lead, the number of shooting days, and the engagement of the viewers.
As Jadaone says: “There was no concept of a showrunner [in the Philippines] then, so we had to adapt and learn. For my part, I had to learn the language of series, learn the medium. I watched a lot of series and masterclasses, and did a lot of research. It’s difficult to produce both a film and a limited series, especially because of the small budget available here in the Philippines. But it was always a great experience collaborating with different directors and writers, tackling different stories and issues. They might be different media, but it’s still the same: you won’t be lost if you just follow the vision of the director.”
As Korean dramas have already become a huge cultural phenomenon in the Philippines, might it be possible to introduce shorter television dramas? The reception of Project 8 Projects’ series might give a hint. The Kangks Show had a wildly successful reception online and reality series like Drag Den, and Drag Race Philippines, which aired first, meant creating dedicated viewers that follow the show and its contestants every step of the way.
But this doesn’t mean that producers are merely looking at their laptops and TV screens when it comes to producing the next big thing. Big studio producer Star Cinema signaled the return of star-making productions on the big screen in November 2022 with the love team vehicle An Inconvenient Love, directed by a young director, Petersen Vargas. Vargas had already won awards on the indie film festival circuit, including the Best Director at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival in 2014 for a short film about young unrequited gay love (Geography Lessons). An Inconvenient Love stars Belle Mariano and Donnie Pangilinan have been touted as part of the next generation of love teams, which have always been winners at the box office. The film charmed its way into a ₱15 million (US$272,737) earnings, and by the time it hit Netflix in February 2023, it had landed in the Top 10 Films list in the Philippines.
Star Cinema’s next big bet is their Metro Manila Film Festival entry, Partners in Crime. The film featured Star’s usual box office star Vice Ganda with Ivana Alawi, as two exes who get involved in a crime. The film is directed by top director Cathy Garcia Molina and grossed ₱171 million (US$3,109,260) – though it was eclipsed by the eventual MMFF top box-office draw, the horror film Deleter, which was helped by a steady campaign from the fans of star Nadine Lustre and its Best Picture win. It reportedly earned up to ₱249 million (US$4,182,046) by the time it finished its run.
Earlier in 2022, the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival finally returned for in-person screenings, and with full-length films once again in competition after several years of being a shorts-only festival. Cinemalaya’s usual audience of film lovers and students eagerly flocked to the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the screenings, trying to bring the pre-pandemic magic back to the film festival. This year’s edition has yielded gems from a new breed of filmmakers such as Anna Isabelle Matutina, who directed the women’s rights drama 12 Weeks; Ma-an L. Asuncion-Dagñalan with the riveting thriller Blue Room; and Christian Paolo Lat with the sports-family drama Ginhawa.
Film festivals such as Cinemalaya, the Ngilngig Asian Fantastic Film Festival in Davao (which celebrates genre filmmaking, particularly horror and fantasy – and one of the rare high-profile film fests outside Metro Manila), and QCinema International Film Festival, do demonstrate how short films have become the lifeblood of Philippine cinema. Relatively easier to produce, these short films have expanded the horizons of emerging filmmakers, even the notable ones, competing head-to-head with the full-length films released in 2022.
Standouts include Whammy Alcazaren’s Bold Eagle, a whimsical blend of Marcosian myth and alternate sex lives online; Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan’s The Headhunter’s Daughter, a mesmerizing journey of an indigenous girl with big dreams (the short won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival); Shayla Claire Perales’ Rambutan, where a lowly fruit stands a metaphor for the Covid-19 virus and the insanity that came with it; and Rocky De Guzman Morilla’s Mga Tigre ng Infanta (“The Tigers of Infanta”), a cunningly crafted horror film that’s destined to be a full-length breakout, and features a cameo from the undeniable star and avatar of Philippine Cinema in 2023, Dolly De Leon. De Leon embodies the towering image of Philippine Cinema in 2023. An actress whose captivating second-act turn in Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness proved her infallible greatness with a role that inadvertently represented the struggles of Filipinos working overseas.
De Leon’s journey has been long and difficult, with the actress almost quitting because shows and films only offered her bit parts. Perhaps her biggest show before Triangle of Sadness was 7 Days of Hell, Erik Matti’s contribution to the second season of Folklore, HBO’s Southeast Asian horror anthology. Watching De Leon command the troubling proceedings of 7 Days of Hell says a lot about her capabilities, which have been constrained by capsules and cameos throughout the years.
With De Leon, there’s suddenly another Filipino in the international spotlight, someone who’s managed to capture the global film audience with nominations at both the Golden Globes and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. But it’s also baffling that it took a Swedish film for the large part of the industry to appreciate De Leon as an actress. Not only that – it took a Golden Globe nomination for people to really pay attention to her.
De Leon is not alone in the international spotlight. If you look hard enough, there are Filipinos showing how broad Philippine Cinema is continually moving well beyond the commercial pleasers and controversial propaganda films. There’s Chai Fonacier eating it up in Nocebo – arguably a Filipino film despite being an Irish co-production – alongside Eva Green and Mark Strong; there’s Soliman Cruz and Bart Guingona in Mihai Mincan’s immigrant To the North, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival; there’s Stefanie Ariane in Hayakawa Chie’s study of euthanasia, Plan 75, which received the Cannes Camera d’Or Special Mention Award; there’s Mike De Leon’s restored version of The Rites of May (Itim) at Cannes, and the director got a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art; and Lav Diaz returned to the Venice Film Festival with When the Waves Are Gone. The traveling film program “The Kalampag Tracking Agency: 30 Years of Experimental Film & Video from the Philippines” co-curated by Merv Espina and Shireen Seno played in several places across the globe, and fan favorite Leonor Will Never Die (a film which didn’t really have a big theatrical run in the Philippines, only playing at select cinematheques) achieved a Best International Film nomination at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
You can also find Filipino filmmakers working behind the scenes of international films. Among them are Bianca Balbuena who co-produced Nocebo; Alemberg Ang and Will Fredo who produced Plan 75; and Armi Rae Cacanindin who co-produced the FIPRESCI Prize Venice Film Festival winner Autobiography which was edited by Carlo Francisco Manatad. Cacanindin also co-produced the Thai film Arnold Is a Model Student, a Locarno entry.
Still on the international front, Netflix has started to carry some restored Filipino classic films this year, in partnership with ABS-CBN’s hardworking Film Restoration department. Notable films include Peque Gallaga’s Oro Plata Mata, Ishmael Bernal’s Himala (Miracle), Gil Portes’ Markova: Comfort Gay and Chito S. Roño’s modern classic horror film Feng Shui. Through the streaming platform, these films can be discovered (and re-discovered) by audiences, new and old, keeping their legacies alive.
Film restoration is still slow in the Philippines, with only a handful of films getting restored. Mike De Leon has managed to restore most of his films for a Blu-ray box set of eight films which includes In the Blink of an Eye (Kisapmata), Batch ‘81, and even the short film Paradise Is Not Shared (Aliwan Paradise). It’s available through the French distributor Carlotta Films. FPJ Archives, which contains the films of action icon Fernando Poe Jr. is also working at restoring its own films.
So what lies ahead for this year? Kenneth Dagatan started 2023 with In My Mother’s Skin, a period horror piece that managed to snag an Amazon acquisition even before it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The Metro Manila Development Authority was so encouraged by the success of the 2022 MMFF that it finally pushed through its plans to hold a summer edition, which includes eight films. Of note is Jun Robles Lana’s About Us but Not About Us, which has already played at several film festivals, including the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Chris Martinez’s Here Comes the Groom, the sequel to the hilarious body-switching ensemble film Here Comes the Bride (2010), is also something to look forward to. It already seems that Philippine cinema will be flourishing in 2023.
Don Jaucian