QCinema International Film Festival

Charles, an engineering student with an eye for beauty, just returned from school to a dormitory owned by Aling Linda, a strict, lonesome widow. Other occupants of the dorm include Max–now on his 7th year in college, Sheen–his reluctant partner, Steven–a social entrepreneur, Ramon–his cop lover, Alex–a call center agent, and Jenny–his attentive girlfriend. They all spend the evening tucked away in solitary rooms, talking about collective experiences, sharing a similar fate. And rent is due.

In the traffic-laden streets of Metro Manila, two brothers use the chaos of the city roads as a smokescreen for their shady occupation tandem robbers on motorbike. But when a robbery goes sour, the brothers are forced to graduate from low level thieves to high profile hit men in an act that tests both their resolve and their relationship.

Long removed from her music lessons when she was still young, Lisa Valenzuela, a single-minded pianist, grapples with a debt she knows she owes.

Vangie, a miserable contractual sales lady, is about to lose her job. But in her desperate attempt to convince her boss not to sack her, Vangie uncovers the ultimate jaw-dropping secret to regularization.

In a remote mountainous region of the northern Philippines, an illiterate indigenous man gets fed up with being exploited by his employers and decides to go to school. With the goal of making a better life for himself and his family, 41-year old Agustin Tiburcio starts learning his ABCs.

Lisang’s soul is trapped in purgatory due to her bad behavior. Once again, her name is picked and reconsidered. Will she be able to make it this time?

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.

A 1950's mestiza star–trapped inside a television that fell from the sky–dreams up a romantic romp on the rice terraces, with a Bontok Igorot man who does not know how to kiss.

1901, Balangiga. Eight-year-old Kulas flees town with his grandfather and their carabao to escape General Smith's Kill & Burn order. He finds a toddler amid a sea of corpses and together, the two boys struggle to survive the American occupation.

A heartbroken writer tries to get back with an ex through his romantic comedy hugot script but fails and instead finds himself magically living-out the scenes he has written. He’s forced to follow everything verbatim or else face being stuck in an existential loop of scenes that repeat over and over again.

After getting disposed of, a facemask starts to turn into a humanoid figure while looking for its previous owner. It then wanders around different places in Manila and starts an adventure.

A woman mourns the drowning of a young activist that took place years ago. She sinks into herself and recreates a story that coalesces memory, delirium, and forgetting.