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The Film Development Council of the Philippines ( Fdcp) will hold I Animate: Animation Film Festival starting April 24 to May 7 in its regional Cinematheque Centres and select Sm cinemas

Photo from Fdcp

Revealed last April 15, 2025, the lineup is top billed by renowned world cinema titles led by Cinemalaya 2023 Best Film “Iti Mapukpukaw (The Missing)”, the Oscar 2025 Best Animated Feature Film “Flow,”and BFI London Film Festival Best Film “Memoir of a Snail.”

Other acclaimed full-length films to be screened are “Cleaners”by Glenn Barit, “Saving Sally” by Avid Liongoren, “Wolf Children” by Mamoru Hosoda, “Ghost Cat Anzu” by Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, “Loving Vincent” by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, “Le Petit Nicolas” by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre,”Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger, and “Weathering With You” by Makoto Shinkai.

The festival also includes short films under the following three sections: Animated Short Focus, From the Archives, and Student Shorts Showcase.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines ( Fdcp) will hold “I Animate: Animation Film Festival” starting April 24 to May 7 in its regional Cinematheque Centres and select Sm cinemas

Revealed last April 15, 2025, the lineup is led by Cinemalaya 2023 Best Film “Iti Mapukpukaw” (The Missing), the Oscar 2025 Best Animated Feature Film “Flow”, and BFI London Film Festival Best Film “Memoir of a Snail.”

Acclaimed Asian full-length features to be screened are “Cleaners” by Glenn Barit, “Saving Sally” by Avid Liongoren, “Wolf Children” by Mamoru Hosoda, “Ghost Cat Anzu” by Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, and “Weathering With You” by Makoto Shinkai. “Loving Vincent” by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, “Le Petit Nicolas” by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre, and “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger are the other world cinema titles in the festival.

I Animate also includes Philippine short films under the following three sections: Animated Short Focus, From the Archives, and Student Shorts Showcase.

Inspired by Jose Rizal’s third, unfinished novel, but ultimately a radical deconstruction, “Rizal’s Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge” is a silent film like no other, that recently won Best Feature Film ln Lausanne. Shot on expired film stock that was later hand-painted and scratched by Khavn, the result is a visual experiment that embraces chaos in every form.

The main story, though intentionally thin, revolves around three central figures. Agaton Damaso is a cruel Spanish priest, Simoun Rizal is a melancholic Filipino poet, and Sisa Bracken is an enigmatic American woman who serves as a source of conflict between the two men. Rizal is determined to write the ultimate Filipino poem, while Sisa searches desperately for her two lost children. Damaso’s oppressive presence looms over them until it vanishes in the most shocking manner. Meanwhile, Rizal’s epic poem unfolds visually on screen, interwoven with an ever-growing cast...

by Lé Baltar

Chuck Escasa‘s latest work, “Ghosts of Kalantiaw,” which was among the recipients of a grant from the Singapore International Film Festival where it also had its world premiere last year, presents a chilling argument for the post-truth era. Past this, the documentary interrogates how mythmaking has eroded many inner lives in the Philippines and has become a pivotal factor in the return of another Marcos to the country’s top post, 36 years after the ouster of his dictator father from power. The film now screens at the Sinag Maynila Independent Film Festival.

The film tours us around the sights of Batan, a small town in the province of Aklan situated in the northwest portion of Panay Island. It introduces us to its people, the Batangnons, who take pride, or “bugal” as they put it, in the history of their place. And it’s a history that...

Roque Federizon Lee, known professionally as Roxlee is a Filipino animator, filmmaker, cartoonist, and painter. Considered by many to be the godfather of young Filipino filmmakers, Roxlee is best known for creating Cesar Asar with his brother, Monlee. In the 1980s, his works were done in super-8 film, divided between hand-drawn works like The Great Smoke and pixelated live action pieces like Juan Gapang. “Abcd” belongs to the first category.

“Abcd” is streaming on Metrograph, as part of the Kalampag Tracking Agency Shorts Program

Rox Lee directs an experimental animation short, which uses each of the 26 letter of the English to present a different theme, in just over 5 minutes. The animation style differs significantly, although a sense of a child’s drawing and some comic book aesthetics remain throughout the film. At the same time, the sound of a harmonica and Rox Lee’s low voice provide the soundtrack of the short.

After extensive travels across Asia, internships and junior positions in Paris and Los Angeles at companies such as Anonymous Content, Wild Bunch, Endgame and Ad Vitam among others, Nathan decided it was high time to start his own business and launched Stray Dogs in a couple of weeks with a small bank loan in early 2015.

Stray Dogs is dedicated to bringing international, director driven, edgy films to worldwide audiences, and is very proud to work closely with its filmmakers. During its first year, Stray Dogs films got around 30 prizes in international film festivals, and did quite well. Stray Dogs now has a team of four people making sure promising international talent is discovered and their gems are distributed worldwide.

On the occasion of our #TheKhavnProject, we speak with him about his career, Stray Dogs, Asian cinema, the French market, the Indian movie industry and of course, Khavn.

Can you give...

In 2012, Khavn wrote an editorial for a retrospective of Filipino films titled “Philippine New Wave” that took place at the 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival. In this text, he mentions, “Now we come to this third peaking, the third coming of age of a cinema that defies easy categorization. After more than a decade of near silence, Philippine cinema is once again vibrant, plucky and so wildly diverse, that each filmmaker could be his or her own “new wave.”

On the one hand, there are the lengthy, minimalist, poetic films of Lav Diaz, and on the other, the ostensibly avant-garde and distinctly regional storytelling of young turks like Christopher Gozum. (…)

The icing on the cake is, of course, Brillante Mendoza’s best director win at Cannes for “Kinatay.”

This period is unprecedented. There has never before been recognition of this magnitude and relentless consistency for Filipino filmmakers, and there has...

Across Asia Film Festival (Aaff) in Cagliari, in the beautiful Italian island of Sardinia, is back on the 14th of December with a Programme focused mainly on the Philippines and Taiwan, including collateral events, guests and some interesting gems, like a restored edition of the classic Lino Brocka’s “Manila in the Claws of Light”, a Masterclass with directors Shireen Seno and John Torres and the Italian Premiere of “The Kalampag Tracking Agency” an ongoing curatorial initiative between Shireen Seno of Los Otros and Merv Espina of Generation Loss.

Across Asia Film Festival is focused on most interesting languages of recent cinematographic production from Asia, with the goal of promoting and developing cultural exchanges between Italian and foreigners communities. Stefano Galanti and Maria Paola Zedda are the creators and the artistic directors of the event.

“Nina Wu” by Midi Z

The Festival will kick off with “The Night of the...