QCINEMA 2026 UNVEILS LINEUP
From supernatural Filipino folklore and socially conscious animation to award-winning international films, queer narratives, and restored classics, the 14th QCinema International Film Festival celebrates cinema’s power to challenge, provoke, and connect.
Filipino cinema takes center stage as the QCinema International Film Festival returns for its 14th edition from November 13 to 22, 2026, bringing together an ambitious selection of local and international films that explore identity, social realities, cultural memory, and the limitless possibilities of storytelling.
Under the theme “Genre’teurs,” QCinema 2026 embraces cinema that crosses boundaries, challenges conventions, and reimagines familiar genres through fresh perspectives. Its expansive program features emerging Asian filmmakers, daring directorial debuts, LGBTQIA+ stories, innovative short films, acclaimed international titles, documentaries, and digitally restored classics.
Leading this year’s festival is the world premiere of Ella Arcangel: Ballad of Tooth and Claw (Ella Arcangel: Awit ng Pangil at Kuko), directed by Mervin Malonzo, while Hirokazu Kore-eda’s live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed manga, Look Back, closes the festival. Together, the two films frame a program that celebrates both distinctly Filipino storytelling and cinema’s ability to transcend borders.
Filipino Folklore Meets Contemporary Realities
Opening the festival, Ella Arcangel: Ballad of Tooth and Claw brings Philippine supernatural mythology into conversation with the violence and abuses of authority that continue to shape contemporary society.
Adapted from Julius Villanueva’s comics, the animated fantasy-horror film follows 12-year-old Ella, voiced by Bianca Umali, a young mambabarang who battles malevolent spirits while confronting the injustices plaguing her community amid the government’s war on drugs.
Directed by Malonzo, the film draws on Filipino folklore to examine the monsters that haunt both the supernatural and the everyday world. Its combination of indigenous beliefs, horror, and social commentary positions the feature as one of the festival’s most anticipated local offerings. The project previously received the ₱1.5-million QCinema Project Market Philippines Co-Production Grant in 2023.
Closing the festival is Look Back, Kore-eda’s live-action adaptation of Fujimoto’s manga. Starring Natsuki Deguchi as Fujino and Aju Makita as Kyomoto, the film follows two young artists whose friendship and shared passion for drawing shape their creative journeys and personal lives.
The film’s reported awards recognition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival further underscores the festival’s commitment to bringing significant international works to Filipino audiences.
Asian Next Wave Spotlights the Region’s New Voices
At the heart of QCinema 2026 are its competition sections, led by Asian Next Wave, which highlights distinctive filmmaking voices from across Asia and beyond.
This year’s lineup brings together films that examine family, identity, class, gender, tradition, and the uncertainties of contemporary life.
Among the featured titles is 9 Temples to Heaven by Sompot Chidgasornpongse, a multinational production following a businessman who embarks on a pilgrimage to nine temples after a fortune teller warns him of his mother’s impending death. The film uses this spiritual journey to explore questions of fate, belief, and family.
Zou Jing’s A Girl Unknown examines the instability of growing up through the story of a young woman repeatedly uprooted and forced to rebuild her life. Meanwhile, Fujiko by Taichi Kimura turns to 1970s Japan, following a single mother challenging the expectations imposed on women by society.
The competition also makes space for stories that confront the realities of labor, displacement, and social change. Aung Phyoe’s Fruit Gathering follows a queer factory worker in Myanmar contemplating her future, while Lê Bảo’s Hearing explores the emotional distance and silences that divide family members.
Rounding out the selection are The Burning Giants by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, which blends social drama and fantasy; The World Before by Yoon Da-bi, a coming-of-age story set on a quiet South Korean island; and Ella Arcangel: Ballad of Tooth and Claw, which completes the competition with its distinctly Filipino approach to animated fantasy and horror.
Together, these films demonstrate the diversity of contemporary Asian cinema, where intimate personal struggles often intersect with broader political and cultural realities.
New Horizons Pushes the Boundaries of Storytelling
QCinema’s New Horizons section turns its attention to feature directorial debuts and second films by filmmakers experimenting with form, perspective, and subject matter.
The selection spans historical drama, documentary, coming-of-age stories, crime thrillers, and animation.
Among its highlights is Angh by Theja Rio, a historical drama set in 1960s Nagaland that follows a Konyak family as a Christian missionary challenges its commitment to preserving tradition. Nông Nhật Quang’s Baby Jackfruit, Baby Guava takes a more intimate approach, exploring family, sexuality, neurodivergence, and the silences that shape personal relationships.
Other films examine the complexities of youth and social identity. Lim Ha-yeon’s Beach Fictions follows a young woman navigating romance and encounters with strangers in a coastal town, while Fernanda Tovar’s Sad Girlz confronts the aftermath of sexual assault and its impact on friendship.
Rami Kodeih’s Furies brings crime and economic collapse together in a thriller set against Lebanon’s financial crisis. Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva explores the transitions of young people, while Xavier Tera’s The Color of the Sun examines cultural tensions in Okinawa through the arrival of an American teenager.
Completing the section are We Are Aliens by Kohei Kadowaki, an animated reflection on childhood friendship and the lasting consequences of seemingly minor events, and a selection that illustrates how emerging filmmakers continue to reshape cinematic language.
RainbowQC Celebrates Queer Stories and Diverse Experiences
Queer identities, relationships, desire, and belonging take the spotlight in RainbowQC, QCinema’s LGBTQIA+ competition section.
The program brings together films from different cultural contexts, exploring the challenges of living authentically in societies shaped by family expectations, prejudice, conflict, and changing notions of identity.
Among the featured works is Big Little Things by Michelle Zhou, a family drama about a woman who returns home with her girlfriend and asks a male friend to pose as her boyfriend to conceal their relationship from her family.
Pierre le Gall’s Flesh and Fuel finds unexpected intimacy between two truck drivers, while Isabelle Stever’s I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming follows a transgender man navigating his transition amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Animation also takes an irreverent turn in Jim Queen, directed by Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané, a satire in which a mysterious disease threatens to turn Paris’s gay men straight. Meanwhile, Urška Djukić’s Little Trouble Girls follows a shy teenager whose experiences with a Catholic school choir trip to Italy lead her to question her beliefs and discover her desires.
Other highlights include Lovers in the Blue Night by Anuparna Roy, a relationship drama about four people searching for connection in Mumbai; Jane Schoenbrun’s horror film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma; and The Riverbank by Matheus Farias and Enock Carvalho, a queer erotic thriller driven by secret encounters and unexpected attraction.
By bringing these stories together, RainbowQC reinforces the importance of queer representation in cinema, offering audiences perspectives that are at once deeply personal and culturally resonant.
QCShorts International Champions Southeast Asian Filmmaking
QCinema’s QCShorts International champions emerging talent, pairing five QCinema grantees with filmmakers from across Southeast Asia in four thematic programs exploring desire, faith, motherhood, political memory, and humanity’s relationship with nature.
At Night We Lead Different Lives explores transactional relationships through films such as Carlo Francisco Manatad’s And If Thuy Didn’t Exist and Maki Makilan’s Body Works. A Little Blasphemy Never Hurt Anyone tackles faith, the body, and desire, featuring Jen Nee Lim’s Fruit and Rodiell Veloso’s folklore-inspired Run Shirley Run!.
Meanwhile, All Our Mothers Were Once Girls examines motherhood and women’s untold stories through Kylechandler Bigay’s Grandmothering and Toni Cañete’s Maanaa Kanimo. The final program, The Mountains Always Ask for More, confronts environmental conflict, colonial history, and political resistance, featuring Carla Pulido Ocampo’s Agsangit Laeng ti Al-alia (A Ghost Can Only Howl), Arief Budiman’s Golden Island, Savunthara Seng’s Incident on the Mountain, Timoteus Anggawan Kusno’s Obscura, and Jaime Morados’s They Made Monsters.
Together, the four programs spotlight the diversity of Southeast Asian short filmmaking and stories that challenge conventions while amplifying underrepresented voices.
International Cinema, Restored Classics, and Genre-Bending Discoveries
Beyond its competitions, QCinema 2026 offers a broad exhibition program designed to bring acclaimed international films, notable local productions, genre cinema, and documentary storytelling to Filipino audiences.
Screen International features films that have attracted attention on the global festival circuit, including Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, and Lav Diaz’s Makikiraan Po (Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors).
The selection also includes Nowhere to Lay My Eyes by Hong Sang-soo, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, Radu Jude’s The Diary of a Chambermaid, and Eugene Kotlyarenko’s action-comedy thriller Vintage Violence.
Meanwhile, QC Selects brings together distinctive works such as Bebe Go’s 11, a drama-fantasy set during the COVID-19 lockdown; Makoto Ueda’s science-fiction comedy You Are the Film; and Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid, which follows a New York club promoter whose life changes after discovering he has a young son.
The section also features Fucktoys by Annapurna Sriram, P.R. Monencillo Patindol’s I Grew an Inch When My Father Died, Eddie Cahyono’s IBUKU, John Torres’s The Remotes, and Alberto Rodríguez’s crime thriller The Tigers.
For audiences interested in cinematic history, Rediscovery presents digitally restored landmark films selected by QCinema’s artistic director. This year’s lineup includes Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros, Lav Diaz’s Batang West Side, Victor Villanueva’s Patay na si Hesus, Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, and Satoshi Kon’s animated psychological thriller Perfect Blue.
The section also features Focus On: Pete Lacaba, a tribute to the celebrated Filipino writer and screenwriter through two important works: Lino Brocka’s Jaguar, a searing crime drama about power and exploitation, and Mike de Leon’s Sister Stella L., a political drama centered on labor rights and social justice.
For viewers drawn to darker and more experimental cinema, Before Midnight assembles action comedies, supernatural horror, psychological thrillers, and unsettling mysteries. Its lineup includes Arrested Memory by SABU, Chronovisor by Kevin Walker and Jack Auen, I Love Paris by Nicky Murphy, Isabel Sandoval’s Moonglow, and Arthur Harari’s The Unknown.
Documentary filmmaking also receives a dedicated platform through Dokyu Days, which features films examining history, labor, scientific ambition, cultural memory, and the human experience.
Among its selections are Khavn’s Bomba Bernal, which revisits the bomba films of the 1970s and their place in Philippine cultural history; To the Moon and Back by Elisa Gómez Alvarez, following two young scientists pursuing their dream of space exploration; and Union Town by Barbara Kopple, which documents delivery workers organizing for better working conditions.
The program also includes Mani Haghighi’s unconventional documentary about artists preserving fragments of Iranian cultural memory and Alessandra Sanguinetti’s The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, which traces the evolving lives of two cousins over many years.
Making World Cinema Accessible to Filipino Audiences
With its expansive lineup, QCinema 2026 continues to strengthen its position as a major platform for international cinema and Filipino filmmaking.
The festival’s programming brings together works that confront social injustice, explore the complexities of identity, challenge conventional storytelling, and revisit the histories that continue to shape the present. From Filipino folklore and political cinema to queer narratives, experimental animation, and restored classics, the selection invites audiences to experience film as both entertainment and a means of understanding the world.
The festival also underscores the value of supporting emerging filmmakers, particularly through competitions and initiatives such as QCShorts International and the QCinema Project Market, which help bring independent projects to wider audiences.
The 14th QCinema International Film Festival runs from November 13 to 22, 2026, with screenings at Gateway Cineplex 18, Robinsons Movieworld Galleria, Ayala Malls Cinemas TriNoma, Fisher Box Office, and SM Cinema – SM City Fairview.
All festival screenings are priced at an accessible ₱200 per ticket, giving audiences an opportunity to discover new filmmakers, revisit cinematic landmarks, and experience some of the most talked-about films on the international festival circuit.
For screening schedules and further announcements, visit qcinema.ph or follow @qcinemaph on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
As QCinema returns with another ambitious edition, its message is clear: cinema remains a vital space for confronting difficult truths, celebrating underrepresented voices, and imagining worlds beyond the familiar.
