Angeli Bayani

Stranded in the Philippines during World War II, a young girl finds that her duty to protect her dying mother is complicated by her misplaced trust in a beguiling, flesh-eating fairy.

A young Filipina searches for the missing links between her strange bleeding condition and her faraway mother's healing powers.

Since the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Metro Manila has been subjected to intermittent lockdowns with demeaning punishments. Despite the danger, Sandra, a single middle-aged reporter living there, continues to search for stories, even after waking up with symptoms one day. As a public service, she turns the camera on herself for the first time in her career, documenting her condition and recording the sights and sounds of the afflicted city on her way to the hospital. Unfortunately, every place she reaches has a long queue. With her remaining strength, she brings herself to Quiapo Church, the site frequented by many pilgrims in dire situations.

Lorna, a mother of two, just lost her husband, a fisherman one morning in a tragic sea accident. She was left with no choice but to raise her own family. In a town where women are regarded as inferior, she defies the odds by being the first woman “mangingisda” in order to feed her kids. Will she be able to rule out the ways of the sea? How long till’ the community accepts her defiance?"

Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide; stay alive whatever happens; the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, this role will be to wage a guerrilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after; Onoda, 10,000 days later.

Dreaming of a brighter future for her family, a mother who works as a domestic helper in Manila returns home to confront unforeseen changes in her life.

Despite their differences, an aspiring architect falls for her deaf neighbor, who teaches her basic sign language.

Set against the drug wars in the Philippines, Maria's husband is murdered in mysterious circumstances and is left to fend for her three children in a police state. As she delves into Manila’s dark underworld of cops, criminals, and drugs to find answers, she realizes the truth is never black and white, and that she must explore her own darkness to keep her family safe.

After learning that a group of doctors were killed by super natural forces, father’s Salvador and Benedicto will have their faith tested when they are tasked to perform an exorcism on a possessed woman named Clarita. Meanwhile, a photojournalist investigates the truth about Clarita’s possession and helps the two priests perform the exorcism. In their journey to help Clarita, they will encounter demonic obstacles that will prevent them from performing the exorcism.

During a trip to the Philippines, middle-aged Norwegian Lars has met the Filipina he wants to share his life with, but to his surprise she turns him down. Lars now has to face his own prejudices and deal with this uncomfortable situation.

In this coming-of-age-film about self-love, Maya is a girl who has always held a pessimistic view of the rain, reminding her of failed love and other depressing things. Will the rain ever stop her in her journey to overcome past heartaches?

Faced with a series of terrible incidents, the Dela Cruz family now has to make a decision that will alter the history of their family.

As a typhoon bears down on a sleepy rural town in the Philippines, strange events and even stranger behaviour foreshadow the watery catastrophe to come.

Fely is an elderly woman who finds second chance at youth after a visit to a mysterious photo studio.

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.

In a pivotal stage of their youth, four exuberant college sophomores face personal challenges that will affect the rest of their lives.

Toto, a teenage orphan, is recruited by a notorious death squad. Irma, the groups leader, soon becomes a maternal figure to the young boy. As the two form a familial bond, their loyalties will be put to the test when one of their targets turns out to be a familiar face.

'History of the Underground' takes a hard and painful look at life during Martial Law with rare and recently unreleased footage from the era

Three generations of teachers. Three stories of dedication, struggle, and inspiration interweaved. Iah, Espie, and Gennie will prove that being an educator does not end inside the four walls of their classrooms.

Raped and pregnant, an OFW rids herself of unwanted baggage on the flight back home.

Jodilerks, a gas station attendant is on her last day of duty. The night is young…

A deaf child who dreams of attending school faces a series of rejections from his mother because of an unprecedented past.

The silent witness to the life and love of Juanita. It is her sanctuary, the place where she creates dishes for her family, her friends, even enemies and strangers. Through cooking, she gets to know the people around her, and in return, reveal herself to them.

70-year-old Virginia shares the old ancestral house with Delia, her ever-loyal maid. Delia is marrying her long-time boyfriend, Rene, and tearfully confides to Virginia that she wants to go home to her parents in the province to start a new family life with him. Haunted by a past that Virginia tries to conquer her only son Sonny Boy who disappeared years ago, what follows shows a portrait of a woman and a mother trying to juggle the sad realities of life in a cycle of life and death.

An itinerant tattoo artist joins a talent reality show for lesbians in the hopes of winning the prize money that will enable her to get artificially inseminated and achieve her lifelong dream of becoming a mother.

A thriller about a never-ending war, a town ravaged by a devastating storm, and the woman caught in between.

Deep in the slums of Manila, a young boxer's life is changed forever when his father pressures him to cheat in a fight.

A policewoman roams the city of Manila to fulfill her duties as a police patrol to look for her son.

Divina is preparing for her daughter Rowena's 13th birthday when she hears shocking news: her daughter has been attacked by a crocodile, her body still missing. As Divina searches for the body of her daughter in the marshlands of Agusan del Sur, she learns a lesson more tragic than her fate: not all predators are underwater. The film is based on actual events.

On Christmas Day, 15 year old David finds out that his boyfriend, Jonathan has taken another lover. The discovery leads him on the brink of depression making him think of ways to have him back at all cost. He has invited Jonathan to see him on this day for the last time.

A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his country’s never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a simple man who finds life in prison more tolerable, when something mysterious and strange starts happening to him.

The tale of an activist’s journey during the turbulent years of Martial Law, until his capture in the mountains and the dark, nine years of imprisonment that followed, leading to his birth as a poet.

This is a sober and impartial study of homosexuality through the story of a middle-aged gay couturier and his attempts at keeping his dignity amidst the dilemmas and problems brought upon by his homosexuality.

Orphan Carding befriends Army Captain Samuel Corazon, who’s stationed in his town to root out the remaining Huk guerrillas. At the dance hall, Corazon woos dancer Lauriana, and they soon move in together. The two become sort of surrogate parents for the orphan Carding, with Corazon teaching him the ways of men. But the soldier has a dark side, and Carding becomes witness to the violence occurring in their home, and a heinous act committed by the soldier on his common-law wife.

During the late 1990s, a busy working-class Singaporean couple hires a Filipino woman as a maid and nanny to their young son.

A countryside dramedy (drama-comedy) that follows 14-year-old Diana and her younger brother who live by themselves after their mother went abroad and their father lived with another woman. Set in a remote purok, where people display positive outlook in life despite daily struggles, the film features the light side of country lifestyle as the main characters take advantage of the fun and thrills of the town festival to take hold of their sweet childhood.

This is the story of Visayans coming to the MetroManila area in search of greener pastures. Dodong Valderama, a jack-of-trades orphan, and Santo Nino devotee, sis among them, trying his luck in a different place. He meets Inday and her Lola Angeling, also Visayan immigrants, who are fish vendors. Angeling dreams for her daughter to become a popular singer , and hopefully one day, this will get them out of the slums. Angeling is pursued by town widower Max. Dodong, whose idol is the late Flash Elorde, eventually finds a full time job as janitor in a boxing gym. Inday fails to win the town singing contest, much to the disappointment of Lola Angeling.With the help of friend Lao, Dodong pursues Inday until they become sweethearts, then husband and wife.

Lilet Never Happened is the rollercoaster story of how a young girl, struggling to survive in the streets of Manila, spirals down into child prostitution. She is a fighter. She is a dreamer. She is a rebel and she thinks she can handle the world with her wits. But she has to face up to reality when she runs out of innocent dreams.

Julian is a soldier stationed on a remote island in the Philippines. He has finished his three months of service on the island and is ready to leave, but news of a coup d’état in Manilla forces Julian to stay on the island longer. All Julian has is a walkie-talkie, radio and TV. Meanwhile, Julian senses someone watching him. When Julian loses contact with the main base, soldiers Lucio and Eric are sent to the island. The soldiers then talk about a soldier previously stationed on the island and his encounters with a mermaid.

When a kidnapping goes wrong, a desperate father risks everything to save his daughter from the men who hold her captive.

A Yakuza member seeking to lead a new life in Manila. A morbid turn of events brings Haruo (Jacky Woo) to the squalor of Manila. A prized asset of the feared Yakuza in Tokyo, Haruo, aka Tadano Hayashi, escapes the criminal syndicate with bountiful cash, a helpless Filipina bar girl (Nina Kodaka) – and tragic consequences. Now solitary, he has uprooted himself to the railside slums of the metropolis, wistfully fending for himself. Still hiding from his past, he rents out a small room, seemingly lost in the clutter of wandering souls desperate for survival. There, he spends his days anonymously roaming the congested streets selling food, and even giving them away for the hungry. But he mostly keeps to himself, even to the inquisitive Edna (Rosanna Roces), an aging bar girl with whom he occasionally shares his bed.

An artist struggles to finish his work while a storyline about a cult plays in his head.

Sarah is a nurse at a Public Maternity Hospital. The hospital is abuzz with pregnant mothers of all shapes and sizes in different stages of labor. The hospital is short on staff on Christmas Day so Sarah is forced to put in a double shift. Sarah observes the women coming and going in her ward, noting who is a first-timer and who is a veteran. Meanwhile, the wards are overcrowded : two women and their babies sharing single beds while those in labor are spilling unto the hallways. Sarah takes these all in stride, her heart and mind laboring over her own personal pains.

A high school movie featuring a mix of real students and professional actors that deals with the experience of finding one's identity in a country that barely has one.

A former movie actress went to jail for selling drugs.

Single mother Nora lives with her daughter Sarah on a cardboard groundsheet and hammock tied to the undercarriage of a semitrailer in the parking lot of a Manila cargo terminal. Deep in debt and receiving little help from her husband, Nora has nothing to live for except for Sarah. Living in a community suffering from abject poverty, Nora sifts through trash and spends time with Vilma, a happily single shopkeeper, and Minda, whose truck-driver husband disappeared a month ago presumably to live with another woman. With no other viable options to support her daughter, Nora turns to prostitution.

The film has been ten years in the making, and over time it has grown to become what the director himself has called an artistic testament. It is simultaneously his most personal and most provocative film. A film about growing older, about losing, about the special moments one remembers, and about the director's own circling around the essence of eroticism.

An ex-seminarian slash communist runs a hotel in Baguio. He then meets a handsome upcoming lawyer. A once-a-year trip to Baguio by the lawyer and conversations with the hotel owner develop into an affair which encompasses decades of socio-political changes in the country.

Natoy, like any other child, finds joy and excitement in the simplest of things, especially in eating halo-halo filled with pink gelatin and red sago. Things change suddenly when, as he is watching television, a news report about the ongoing war in Mindanao shows footage of a badly wounded soldier waiting to be rescued. That soldier, almost bleeding to death, is his father, Corporal Lino Bolante. This starts his journey as he and his mother Sonia wait for help that comes too late. This story does not only show how the war in Mindanao robs a child of his innocence, but also shows the shadows of war that Filipino homes confront everyday.

Early 20th century Philippines. The sounds of war signal the arrival of the Americans. A mother and son flee to the mountains, hoping for a quiet life. One day, the son discovers a wounded woman in the middle of the forest, and decides to bring her home.

A college heartthrob meets a college newbie - a challenge, a tension, a discovery, and a love that will change everything between them.

A Hyperlink Movie about the choices and actions of a diverse group of people and about the question if it is possible to change your destiny.

Four men, four stories, all intersect in Manila. Episode one is about Ariel, a con-man. Episode two is about Boy, an expectant father. In the third episode, Ronald goes to Manila to sell a building. And in the fourth story Baste saves his sister from Ariel.

Mario and his brother Alonso become committed to fishing in a coral-reef in the southern Philippines. With many other children of different origin they work for starvation wages on the ship of unscrupulous captain Murène. Together they drive shoals of fish into a big fish trap having to use the dangerous muro-ami technique in the coral-reefs. Fastened to a stone, the little divers jump into the water to reach the depth faster. Without any equipment they dive down 30 meters. The brutal captain treats the exhausted children like slaves

"The social worker Aurora is kidnapped by a group of Moslem rebels who have lost their ideals and only plunder. In a military attack on the camp where Aurora is being held, she manages to escape. But in the jungle, she doesn't have a hope and two attackers find her the same night. Her name means 'first light of day', but it's not at all certain that Aurora will make it that far." - IFFR

A story of two high school senior students who believes passing the UPCAT will help make their dreams of becoming successful come true.

A story about victims of summary executions. Three people start a strange therapy to escape their agonies.

Tackles the dynamics of the relationship of a husband with his wife and his lover -- and they all live together in one house.

Adela, a former radio personality, celebrates her 80th birthday. Alone, and without support, she longs for the family and stability of years gone by. Mundane events take on heightened meaning as Adela gauges her life against those of the sea of humanity. Adela is about the quiet moments in life that can fill us with either joy or sorrow.

A Filipino poet returns home after the typhoon.

Ang Huling Araw ng Linggo spans a week in a life of seven individuals with interconnected narratives.

A man gets a new look at life after losing his job and becoming a taxi driver.

Florencia, the matriarch of the Filipinas family, is in poor health, and Yolanda, the eldest of the Filipinas children, finds herself in the unenviable position of keeping her bickering family from disintegration. As the tension rises, Yolanda seeks refuge in a local church. She is critically injured trying to break up a nasty fight between brothers Emman and Samuel, forcing her family to make a life-changing decision.

A priest visits a small seaside town. Miling a former nun who now teaches catechism on the island thinks that father Emman is the priest she sent for. She believes that a priest would help revive the townspeople's faith in God by putting up bars and girly joints.

The film begins in Frankfurt, where Lailani, now 65, awaits a plane to Manila. She is returning home to the Philippines for the first time in 30 years. En route home, she delays her return by stopping over in Singapore. Her interactions with her fellow Filipinos help her reflect on the nature of her loss, the cycle of sacrifice and longing that marks them all. Gripped by the fear of returning home to a life she has left behind but is still intricately connected to, she finds moments of enchantment among other lost souls. They have created their ways of living with disenchantment through a Dreamtime that shelters them from the storms of trauma.