Ani is a seven-year-old ordinary child. Despite being cheerful inside their home with her grandmother, she hides the pain/anguish that she tries to conceal with her smiles.
A penniless mother, with her infant child, takes on a journey by land and sea to find her husband in Manila. But this trip won't be free for she has to use her body to get to her destination.
A grandmother waiting for his grandson's return amidst the COVID-19 lockdown teaches herself the art of playing piano, with the hopes that one day she'd be able to play it in front of her grandson.
The true story of Andres Bonifacio, a man who rose as a leader in the fight against the Spanish oppressors, and would gain the enmity of even those fighting for the same cause.
Valentin Roxas was raised by his Tatay Lito alone when his mother left them to work abroad when he was seven. To maintain a sense of normalcy, Lito wrote young Val letters supposedly from his mother, promising she would return.
When Kana, a young T'boli woman, becomes a dreamweaver, she has the chance to weave together her village's warring clans. But, will she give up true love to do so?
It's Christmas time, and a grandmother spends a quiet afternoon tending to the family chores. But the arrival of an unexpected visitor brings with her some deadly consequences.
GRS operative Jake Alexander and his team of young recruits go after the most dangerous and notorious criminals with the help of a Hong Kong billionaire.
The film follows a young boy's search for the mythical island of fireflies described in his mother's bedtime stories. Using the "clues" he believes his mother left behind in an old notebook, the boy makes the long journey to the magical island to wish her back to life.
Desperate to win an award, a producer hires real supernatural monsters to act in his horror film — but their fee may not be the bargain he thinks it is.
Pieta follows Isaac who tries to navigate the outside world after spending years in jail for killing his father.
The search for a missing watch instigates the painful quest for the truth in Belyn’s and her son’s life.
Celine, a grieving widow returns to her estranged husband’s family’s island estate to scatter his ashes and claim her inheritance. Paeng and Celine de Miranda, both doctors, seemed to be the perfect couple, beloved by the islanders who were beneficiaries of their many medical missions. But the marriage fell apart, marked by her being unable to bear children and rumors of his infidelities. The once idyllic island is now mired in poverty, squalor, and decadence. It is now up for sale to Korean investors.
Filipino director Adolfo Alix Jr. returns to the Festival with this timely story of a couple caught up in Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs when their son goes missing.
A 12-act anthology film about the lives of several people whose love stories take tragic turns as they try to fill in the void in their respective lives.
A photographer is tasked to take a photo of a rare flower thriving in the mountain, but he discovers women trapped in a hidden brothel for illegal loggers.
Manang Biring is a feisty but terminally-ill old lady who has learned to accept her imminent demise. Until one day, she receives a letter from her long-estranged daughter abroad announcing of her return for the holidays.
Ordinary People is a family portrait of Jane, 16, and her boyfriend, Aries, who live on their own in the chaotic streets of Manila. Surviving as pickpockets, the lives of the young couple change when they suddenly become teenage parents. But not even a month into parenthood, their child is stolen from them. In order to retrieve the child, the young couple is forced to take desperate measures.
When Lara lost her husband of five months, she didn't think she could go on living, much less love again. Now, seven months later, Lara is still in mourning. Every time a loved one died, someone else was there to cushion the blow. When her mother followed six years later, there was the rest of the family. But when her husband died, no one could offer any consolation - not her siblings, not her in-laws, not her friends. Not only was he the love of her life, he had also become her life. It would have been better if she died with him. In the meantime, her business -has taken a nosedive. She's also deep in debt with her unpaid condo and car mortgages. With all her predicament, how would Oliver and Chris figure in her life? Will she finally move on?
A famous vlogger commits suicide after her content is based online. When she is about to kill herself, a man is quick enough to save her.
A story of a group of pranksters who scares a homeless girl and accidentally injuring her. One by one, they start encountering a shadow whose glare causes them to fall severely ill and die.
Raped and pregnant, an OFW rids herself of unwanted baggage on the flight back home.
After a turbulent squall in the night, villagers wake up to the astonishing sight of the sea that has turned red.
The story revolves around a hermit named Tokhang. People ridicule her because of her eerie look and scary demeanor. As a bearer of bad tidings, she manages to expose and criticize the foolishness and corruption of the people around her and the society in which they lived in.
Nangungupahan follows the different lives of people who occupy a room of an apartment through different points in time. The room may mean differently to each occupant; and by overlapping these timelines, we gain insight about our shared space and history, as well as the bigger structures outside that affect us.
Liza is still drowning in grief from losing the love of her life when she receives a visit from the most unlikely person — her husband, who she left five years ago. With no questions asked and no conditions made, Anton invites her back to his and their two children’s lives.
It revolves around Glory, a 52-year-old woman who falls in love with Niko, a guy 30 years her junior. They start a risqué May-December love affair, but will struggle to keep their relationship intact amidst social disapproval and judgment.
A serial killer in Payatas leaves the bodies of young boys in the dump as two Jesuit priests try to solve the murders.
A war-torn grandmother, Lola Mame conceals her past from her tenacious and curious grandson Sen. He is persistent in uncovering his grandmother's past. He is motivated not only by academic recquirement but also his longing to puzzle a part of his identity. However, for Lola Mame, there is no secret kept forever. The past is a continuing present.
A 73-year-old woman is physically and emotionally exhausted from caring for her ailing husband who is already in the last stage of his Alzheimer's Disease. He lives in a constant state of confusion and anxiety, occasionally haunted by visions of both faceless and familiar strangers. The wife's frustration and loneliness grows daily as she comes to terms with both her husband's deteriorating state and her own mortality.
A socio-realist drama-comedy film, it follows a seemingly usual day in the life of Loida Malabanan as she embarks on yet another shooting day of a soap opera as an extra. As the shoot goes on, we get a glimpse of the truth in the ruling system of the production as well as the exploitation of the marginalized laborers like her.
Three stories of haunting secrets, folklore, and urban legends.
As a family clashes over their late father's land, an eerie painting appears and releases something sinister during the nine-day funeral ritual.
Actress Eugene Domingo plays a fictionalized version of herself as an actress who really wants to be a director. Unfortunately, she encounters the most enormous stumbling block of all: her ego.
A story of ordinary, happy people living in a tenement is suddenly shaken by a string of conspicuous deaths. Unfortunate and unrelated deaths continue, and they think a killer is living among them.
Inspired by the much-publicized travails of Benhur Luy and Janet Lim Napoles, the film opens with a police operation that leads to the recovery of a certain Zeny Roblado who has been unduly detained by her boss Lorna Valera. From there, Zeny spills whatever she knows of Lorna's shady operations to Teresa, a journalist.
When a struggling high school student is confronted with the painful fracture of her family, she seeks refuge far from the noise of her parents’ world. In the company of her grandmother and an old friend, she begins to see life from a distance---both tender and selfless. Her lessons and realizations are things that cannot be learned from books, but only from a life lived.
Regina, 75, takes every opportunity to line up in the government's arduous medical assistance dole out program just to secure mitigating financial help for her sick husband's increasing hospital bill. In the last two hours before she reaches the end of the line and receive help, Regina bears with her own debilitating illness due to old age, confronts a fixer condoning corruption, and temporarily leaves the line to look for her missing granddaughter who wanders off.