News

“Game of Thrones” veteran Iain Glen’s latest role is portraying Major General Leonard Wood in “Quezon,” the upcoming historical drama from acclaimed Filipino director Jerrold Tarog.

In an interview with Variety from the film’s set in the Philippines, Glen discussed his preparation for inhabiting the role of Wood, who served as governor-general of the Philippines from 1921-1927 and was instrumental in Manuel L. Quezon’s quest for Philippine independence from the United States. The film is a biopic that chronicles the life of Filipino lawyer and soldier Quezon, who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944.

“Quezon” stars Jericho Rosales in the title role of Quezon and the cast also includes Mon Confiado, Benjamin Alves, Karylle Yuzon, Romnick Sarmenta, J.C. Santos and Cris Villanueva.

“I was sent the script and, hold my hands up, I didn’t know a great deal about Philippine history...

“Game of Thrones” veteran Iain Glen has joined the cast of Tba Studios’ historical biopic “Quezon,” it was revealed on the sidelines of Hong Kong FilMart.

Glen, known for his role as the loyal Jorah Mormont in HBO’s fantasy series, will portray Leonard Wood, the U.S. Army major who served as governor-general of the Philippines from 1921-1927. Wood was instrumental in Manuel Quezon’s quest for Philippines’ independence from the U.S.

The film, directed and co-written by Jerrold Tarog is a biopic that chronicles the life of the Filipino lawyer and soldier Manuel L. Quezon, who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944. Jericho Rosales plays Quezon, and the cast also includes Mon Confiado, Benjamin Alves, Karylle Yuzon, Romnick Sarmenta, J.C. Santos and Cris Villanueva.

Glen recently participated in a script reading at the Manila Hotel in Manila alongside the film’s cast and crew.

Jericho Rosales has been tapped by Tba Studios to portray former President Manuel L. Quezon in an upcoming historical film titled Quezon. The project will chart the life of the Filipino lawyer and soldier who led the Commonwealth from 1935 to 1944, offering audiences a closer look at a figure whose legacy continues to spark debate.

Directed and co-written by Jerrold Tarog—whose previous works include Heneral Luna and Goyo: The Boy General—the film is scheduled to begin shooting in March 2025, with plans for a domestic and international release later that year. As part of Tba Studios’ ongoing series centered on Philippine history, the film joins the studio’s celebrated “Bayaniverse” lineup.

Joining Rosales is a cast featuring actors from Tarog’s earlier productions. Mon Confiado returns to portray Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon’s rival, while Benjamin Alves plays a younger version of the president. The film also includes Karylle Yuzon as Quezon’s wife,...

Exclusive: Philippine production and distribution company Tba Studios has cast Jericho Rosales to play the title role in its upcoming historical biopic Quezon.

Rosales will play Manuel L. Quezon, the Filipino lawyer and soldier who went on to become the President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944.

The film serves as Rosales’ long-awaited return to Philippine cinema after a hiatus of several years; he was last seen on the big screen in 2018 romantic drama The Girl In The Orange Dress. On television, he recently starred in the hit Abs-cbn drama Lavender Fields.

Scheduled to start filming in March 2025, Quezon is directed and co-written by Jerrold Tarog, whose credits include the historical biopics Heneral Luna (2015) and Goyo: The Boy General (2018), both also produced by Tba Studios.

Also starring in Quezon are Mon Confiado and Benjamin Alves, who reprise their roles from Heneral Luna and Goyo: The Boy General. Confiado...

The Philippines’ Quezon City Film Commission and QCinema have revealed the lineup for the second edition of the QCinema Project Market (Qpm).

Twenty projects were selected from 63 submissions across the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The market aims to connect filmmakers with international partners and offers approximately $300,000 in grants and prizes.

Notable projects from last year’s Qpm have made significant progress. Rafael Manuel’s “Filipiniana” and Woo Ming Jin’s “Fox King” are in post-production, while Duong Dieu Linh’s “Don’t Cry Butterfly” is world premiering at Venice Critics’ Week.

Southeast Asian Projects from the 2024 selection include:

“The Beer Girl in Yangon” – Director: Sein Lyan Tun, Producer: Yulia Evina Bhara. Synopsis: A 17-year-old girl works in a Yangon beer station after her father’s political arrest, navigating love and hallucinations.

“Picturehouse” (Vietnam) – Director: Minh-Nghiem Nguyen-Vo, Producer: Johann Chapelan. Synopsis: In 1960s Vietnam, a family-run movie house becomes a sanctuary for a boy amid war.

Exclusive: Upcoming Filipino crime drama series Sellblock has wrapped principal photography and is headed for MIPTV. You can see four first-look images above.

Slated as a three-season series, Sellblock chronicles the activities of one of Asia’s biggest drug empires operating from inside a Philippines maximum-security prison. LA’s Blue Fox Entertainment has boarded the show and will launch it at the final ever MIPTV next week in Cannes, France.

The series is produced by Manilla-based BlackOps Studios Asia, headed by Pedring Lopez, who is known for Netflix’s Maria, Darkroom and Geisha of Death and also leads Psyops8. Lopez directs all eight episodes of the first season.

Blue Fox is handling sales, including the Philippines, and will be screening the pilot episode for buyers at MIPTV as it moves into TV distribution. Filipino producer Abs-cbn was initially attached to the show, but we hear it is no longer involved.

Hollywood producer Scott M. Rosenfelt has joined Filipino TV crime-action series, “Sellblock,” as U.S.-based Blue Fox Entertainment joins as the show’s sales and distribution representative.

Planned as a three-season series, “Sellblock” chronicles the activities of one of Asia’s biggest drug empires which is operating from inside a Philippines maximum-security prison. Production is scheduled to start in May.

The cast is headlined by Jericho Rosales alongside actors Empoy Marquez, Ronnie Lazaro, Mon Confiado, Sylvia Sanchez, and Ria Atayde.

The show is produced by Philippines-based BlackOps Studios Asia, headed by Pedring Lopez. Lopez will direct all eight episodes of the first season.

“Pedring and I are very pleased to expand upon our growing relationship with Blue Fox Entertainment’s executives, Audrey Delaney and Lisa Gutberlet with ‘SellBlock,’ as we are already involved together in two feature projects, ‘CounterPlay’ and ‘Gi’,” said Rosenfelt. “We appreciate their standing in the...

NewFilmmakers Los Angeles has announced the nominees for the 10th annual Best of Nfmla Awards.

Nfmla is a nonprofit organization that supports emerging filmmakers and artists through a monthly series of screenings and events in Los Angeles. The nominees for its Best of Nfmla slate are comprised of films that have screened as part of the Nfmla Monthly Film Festival selection in 2021. This year, the awards honor 125 nominees across 16 categories, including achievements in features, documentaries, shorts, experimental media and a best new filmmaker award.

“We are so proud to be able to highlight the incredible talent of all of our nominees, who have each created such inspiring work,” Nfmla programming director Bojana Sandic said in a statement.

15,000 will be provided to select Best of Nfmla winners, a practice that began last year to celebrate the career of recently passed producer Anthony Rhulen, who launched the indie producing company FilmEngine.

“We...

Philippines star Jericho Rosales has been announced as headlining the cast of “Sellblock” an upcoming scripted TV prison series. The show is hatched by Manila-based Abs-cbn and its production partner BlackOps Studios Asia.

It was first announced last month as part of BlackOps’ genre slate of projects with its creative partner Psyops8, and its coproduction partners Story Arch Pictures and Agog Film Productions. The Film Development Council of the Philippines has also voiced its support for this project.

BlackOps also announced that Hong Kong-based New Asia Ferrell Asset Management Limited is joining as a financial partner.

Other actors joining the cast of “Sellblock” include Tirso Cruz III, Cherry Pie Picache, Ronnie Lazaro, Rosanna Roces, Mon Confiado and Rk Bagatsing. Further acting leads will be announced in the coming weeks.

Former broadcast giant, Abs-cbn is the largest media and entertainment group in the Philippines and is now increasing its focus on content production for global audiences.

Wip initiative will run simultaneously with the Haf main programme (August 26-28) and Filmart Online (August 26-29).

The Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) has announced the 22 projects, including ten narrative features and 12 documentaries, which have been selected for the Work-in-Progress (Wip) section of this year’s Haf.

The Wip initiative will run simultaneously with the Haf main programme (August 26-28) and Filmart Online (August 26-29). Both events were postponed from March due to the Covid-19 pandemic and were recently forced to move online as travel restrictions are still in place across the region and in Hong Kong.

Haf will...

The success of our Submit Your Film Initiative was even more significant than we expected, since we received almost 100 applications from filmmakers all over the Asian world, in order to review their films for Asian Movie Pulse. Furthermore, and particularly regarding short films, we have started a cooperation with Vienna Shorts Festival, that will allow the films that we suggest to them to be submitted with a 70% price off (final submission fee would be just 3-5 euros depending on the film) and a chance to screen in Vienna during the festival.

In that regard, we would like to thank all the filmmakers who submitted their work and we hope that they continue to do so for many years to come.

At the same time, we also felt the need to celebrate this initiative by listing the movies we considered the best. Without further ado, here are the best #SubmitYourFilm Movies...

“Basurero” (Dump) follows an impoverished fisherman named Bong. With a large family to support, Bong becomes desperate for money and turns to dumping a body in the water for pay. However, the grim task does little to alleviate his situation, and he begins to fear a fate similar to the “trash” he has been paid to throw away.

The production delivers a rather chilling portrayal of poverty and murder within the Philippines. It succeeds through avoidance of portraying actual acts of violence and instead focuses on how the human rights violations can affect individuals. With Bong, we get a man troubled by the burden of having to dump bodies of members of his community, in order to keep his own family safe. However, and perhaps the most frightening aspect of the narrative, comes from his inability to make a sustainable living even with the extra cash, and the realization that...

Inspired by an urban legend about kidnappers targeting children to be turned into beggars, Ian Lorenos' Alagwa (Breakaway) tells the story of Robert (Jericho Rosales) and Brian (Bugoy Carino), his son. The film opens with Robert and Brian shopping inside a mall. Brian wanders off, attracted by the various toys being peddled. Seeing that his son is missing, Robert searches the mall, seeing Brian playing with the toys. He pulls away his son from the toys and scolds him, warning him of the syndicates that kidnap children to use them as beggars. The relationship between Robert and Brian is one that is far from ideal. Robert works as a salesman, struggling to survive within the normally wealthy Filipino-Chinese community with only the meager commissions he earns. Brian...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Director Ian Lorenos and actor Jericho Rosales visited the Southern California desert for the 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. I'm proud to say that the city I live in hosts one of the most prominent film festivals in the world!

Lorenos and Rosales were in town for their fantastic indie, "Breakaway (Alagwa)." The film has been getting major awards buzz for its indelible performances (both Rosales and the child actor who plays his son, Bugoy Carino), well-written script (Lorenos wrote and directed the film), and intriguing plotline.

It was a pleasure meeting both star and director for one-on-one interviews. They both consider "Breakaway" an important film in their respective careers.

So how many kisses does "Breakaway" get? Find out below (this is the piece that appeared on Tfc's Balitang America):...

If the list of awardees below is long, it’s because the Newport Beach Film Festival screens over 400 films from more than 45 countries. With 50,000 visitors to the festival each year, part of the success of the program is its ability to draw full houses of appreciative audiences.

Opening with Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu and Peter Fonda in “East Fifth Bliss,” the festival closes with “A Beginner’s Guide to Endings.” “Beginner’s Guide” stars Harvey Keitel as a gambling man at the end of his tether, and his three sons (Scott Caan, Paulo Costanzo and Jason Jones) who soon learn that their father signed them up for unsafe drug tests when they were kids.

In between the go and the whoa were panels on directing, music composition and a master class on screenwriting given by Aaron Sorkin. Oh, and those 400 films. For a highlights list of the films at...

If the list of awardees below is long, it’s because the Newport Beach Film Festival screens over 400 films from more than 45 countries. With 50,000 visitors to the festival each year, part of the success of the program is its ability to draw full houses of appreciative audiences.

Opening with Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu and Peter Fonda in “East Fifth Bliss,” the festival closes with “A Beginner’s Guide to Endings.” “Beginner’s Guide” stars Harvey Keitel as a gambling man at the end of his tether, and his three sons (Scott Caan, Paulo Costanzo and Jason Jones) who soon learn that their father signed them up for unsafe drug tests when they were kids.

In between the go and the whoa were panels on directing, music composition and a master class on screenwriting given by Aaron Sorkin. Oh, and those 400 films. For a highlights list of the films at...