2025 Present Confusion Year in Review - Philippine Cinema Favorites

did this break your screen? lol at least it's not made by AI

In the year of our lord 2025, 197 Filipino films of mid- and feature length were released either in cinemas, on streaming or as part of a film festival. I have seen every last one of them.

Compared to 2024, Philippine Cinema in 2025 feels like a small step back and a small step forward at the same time. Some production companies made less films, but at the same time, certain films gained a lot of traction with local audiences, to the point where there were multiple Filipino films showing in theaters at the same time in a non film festival setting. The reasons for this are numerous: producers and theater chains experimented with lowering prices to pre-pandemic levels, while releasing several local films that lasted a long time in cinemas, such as Sunshine, or I Remember You. Regardless, box office returns failed to reach the heights of pre-pandemic levels, with the highest box office draw being Meet, Greet and Bye, which earned more than 250 million pesos over its extended run.

As for film fests, Cinemalaya moved their schedules to October due to funding and budgetary issues, which put it in close proximity with Sinag Maynila (late September),  the brand new Cinesilip (formerly VMX) film festival (late October) and QCinema (Mid November). This concentrated many releases around the latter half of the year - in fact, the number of local releases from the second half of 2025 were more than 1.7 times as much as that in the first half.

While VMX (and its sister service Viva One) was still the undisputed champion of local streaming output this year, 2025 saw the emergence of new independently operated streaming services. Examples of such streaming services are Elcid Camacho's Bisayaflix, offering original feature films and shorts catered towards Visayan audiences, and Star Sinemax, an alternative to VMX that features films done by the same directors and sometimes the same actors.

the Cinepop! website (an app is also available)

One particular new sub-medium of online media that has gained traction over the past few years is the vertical drama or duanju, episodic chunks of a single story meant to be viewed on the phone. Some of these new streaming services (such as Cinepop or TBONX), as well as established ones like Viva One and Cignal Play, began releasing their own versions of these vertical dramas.

The TBONX vertical erotica website

The landscape of Philippine Cinema in the future has its share of promise and uncertainty, as audience tastes evolve, the cost of moviegoing increases year after year, and forms of media shift towards more easily accessible, easily digestible forms of entertainment.

Full Length Features, in Depth

Let's dive deeper into those 197 films and see how I came across that number. Perhaps you've heard some of my colleagues mention lower numbers (Fred Hawson of ABS-CBN, for example, cites more than 180). This number was accurate at the time (in fact, I was the one who supplied the figure), though in the course of determining eligible films for the Society of Filipino Film Reviewers (SFFR), there are some that passed by everyone's radar.

Of those 197 films, 193 are films that are 60 minutes and above, which fits under the academy description of a feature film. 4 films, on the other hand (Hayok, Sariwa, Liwaliw, and the aforementioned Remembering Margarita) come out at under 60 minutes long but longer than 45 minutes, which under our criteria we classify as a mid-length feature film.

What films are not included in this count? Due to eligibility requirements (a Filipino or person of Filipino descent as two of three of the following: writer, director, producer) there are some films that don't make the cut, such as Italian Marco Calvise's bonkers sci-fi horror The Marianas Web about the horniest farmer in Italy, and Park Cho-rong's Finding Santos, which is as Filipino-coded as it gets, but is written and directed wholly by South Koreans. 어떡해~

These films have to be released in a manner that is accessible to the public and not a one night only or limited, free screening (which excludes films like Adolfo Alix's Faney, which was released as such shortly after the death of Nora Aunor). The film also has to be in a completed form, which excludes films like the fascinating documentary Komiks with a K about Filipino komikeros at home and abroad, and (unfortunately for me!) the absolute AI slopfest that is John Shaw: Nuclear Winter.

LOOK AT THIS POSTER. LOOK AT IT.

Of those 197 films, 108 were released in cinemas, either as a normal theatrical release (65 films) or through a film festival (43 films). The remaining 89 films were released in streaming services either as a pay per view offering or as part of their library under a subscription service. Most streaming full lengths (62 films) were released through VMX, with the rest released through other services.

Of the 27 non-VMX streaming films released this year, this is the breakdown of those films by streaming service:

Among the non-VMX streaming services, Netflix and the ABS-CBN adjacent iWantTFC had the most streaming releases in 2025. Youtube had two (the Remembering Margarita documentary and Benedict Mique's The Four Bad Boys and Me), Singapore-based LGBTQIA+ streaming service GagaOOLala had one (Jay Altarejos' Sa Panahong Walang Katiyakan) while literally in the last week of 2025, MAVX Productions' PPV service Filicoola showed the long delayed and undeservedly controversial Dear Santa.

If we look at the number of films released per month, it looks a little like this:

January by far has the fewest new releases of 2025, partially because MMFF films were still showing during this time, and partially because theaters and even streaming services were releasing 2024 films in January instead of releasing something new. Because of two back to back film festivals in addition to new offerings theatrical or otherwise, October has by far the most new film releases in 2025 (the 2024 record holder was August). On average, around 16 films were released in 2025 per month through theaters, filmfests and streaming. On an average month in 2025, around 8 local films were released theatrically (5 if you do not count film fest releases which do not take place regularly).

The average Filipino full length feature film in 2025 is roughly 93 minutes and 19 seconds long, though we had a few very long films this year. The longest by far is (not surprisingly) Lav Diaz's Magellan, which clocks in at 164 minutes, followed by Kristian Sendon Cordero's documentary Mga Nakabuhing Agi-Agi, which is 4 minutes shorter at 160 minutes, and the new Shake Rattle and Roll film, which clocks in at 148 minutes.

Since a large chunk of the films in 2025 were released via streaming, those films (89/197 plus 3 more limited theatrical releases) are either unrated or rated via that service's own rating system. 

Romance and horror films as always dominated local theaters and even film fests, but that hasn't stopped local filmmakers from being inventive about genre trappings. This year alone we had a time-travelling cop action thriller (Sugo), a time-travelling priest melodrama (Isang Komedya sa Langit), a vampire movie that wouldn't feel out of place in the YA section of Fully Booked (The Time that Remains), an experimental collage film (Sa Panahong Walang Katiyakan), a near future sci-fi film that wouldn't feel out of place contending for an Alfred P. Sloan prize (Romance Reboot), at least two (!) kulam-adjacent films (Lola Barang and Mananambal), no less than three (!!) films with very long takes (Everyone Knows Every Juan, Walon8 Libong Piso and Some Nights I Feel Like Walking) and no less than three (!!!) musicals (Nasaan Si Hesus, Song of the Fireflies and The Heart of Music.) One film nearly crosses into metadocumentary (Lakambini), if it hasn't already.

At least 31 films had one or more people who were full length directors for the first time, and at least 28 films were either directed or co-directed by women. The most prolific local directors of 2025 directed 4 or more films this year, and most are directors of VMX films:

This year's films continued 2024's exploration of memory (Manila's Finest), personal and national histories (Quezon, Magellan), as well as questions of identity (Dreamboi, Flower Girl) and toxic or harmful social norms (Sunshine, How To Get Away From My Toxic Family). Films this year also explored and experimented on concepts from the romantic genre (Ex Ex Lovers, Only We Know). Social issue documentaries continued to have representation this year, whether it be docus about issues relating to a specific place (Food Delivery, Wash Out) or about the struggle itself (also Wash Out, and Bloom Where You Are Planted). Surprisingly a number of films this year had a religious or religion-adjacent angle, whether it be satirical (Sampung Utos Kay Josh, Dear Santa) or played completely straight (Paquil, Nasaan si Hesus?, In Thy Name) or something in the middle (Samahan ng Mga Makasalanan, The Last Beergin).

Before we move on to the favorite full length films list, let's take a look at the Filipino Short Films of 2025.

Short Film Favorites

Like I said in my year in review for 2024, short films are pretty difficult to catalog and pin down because they tend to stay in the film festival ecosystem for multiple years. If we were to count the raw, unfiltered number of Filipino short films released in 2025, the actual number will reach around 400, released either through streaming sites, or through more than 40 film festivals, thesis defenses and academic-adjacent film events like the UPFI's Black Beret showcase.

Still, if one were to determine what exactly best represents the "pulse" of Filipino film in this day and age, the thing that possesses a more varied array of themes and genre, the thing that better represents the Philippines as a whole through its regions, and (arguably) the thing that best represents the many creative avenues of Philippine Cinema, then watching short films is the way to go.

The film festivals that have shorts at the center or otherwise have a robust shorts program are this year's ever reliable Gawad Alternatibo and Sine Rehiyon, as well as the short film programs of Cinepanalo, Sinag Maynila, QCinema and Binisaya.

Of these 400 or so films, I've seen roughly 200 of them. Here are 25 short films, arranged in random order, that I liked a lot:

FAVORITE FILIPINO SHORT FILMS OF 2025 (IN RANDOM ORDER)

Narrative

1. Uwian (dir. Vhan Marco Molacruz) - some people hold on to tangible things in order to serve as a placeholder for memories, or as a means of holding on to hope. Thanks in part to a best-of-year, heartbreaking performance by Ge Villamil, Uwian shows us what happens when that hope is taken away. Powerful stuff.

2. Daog/Pildi (dir, Johannes Tejero) - I have seen two local e-sports related shorts this year (the other one being Jose Andy Sales' G!) and as someone who used to be part of the then-fledgling fighting game community, I connected with this one a lot. Daog/Pildi frames the competitiveness of the fighting game community with the things that stick with us in childhood, and the blossoming of young romance.

3. Champ Green (dir. Clyde Gamale) - a lot of films this year (and in years past) have been about our relationship with our parents, complex and fraught as they may sometimes be. Champ Green speaks to the many ways our parents just want the best for us even though they cannot express it fully through words, even though the harsh material realities of the world try to crush that familial desire for a better life. Emotional and resonant.

4. Habeas Corpus (You Shall Have the Body) (dir. Vrian Pamatmat) - this straightforward film about a worker for a shady morgue who finds someone he does not expect in the course of his work shows us how sometimes, the gravity of things happening at larger scopes only becomes tangible and real when we stare at it face to face. 

5. I'm Best Left Inside My Head (dir. Elian Idioma) - this anxious, chaotic and funny claymated short perfectly depicts our many deep-seated insecurities (and the imposter syndrome, monstrous as it is) that grows from it. Hella funny and slightly disturbing as well.

6. Sa Oras ng Paghuhukom (dir. Sean Romero) - we now live in a world where cults of all kinds are rampant. But what is the nature of the power these cults hold over the people? This account of an apocalyptic cult in its last days shows how dependent that power is on unquestioning belief, and how, with a rational, skeptical mind, one can see that such power completely falls apart without it.

7. Goodnight, Dad. I Love You (dir. Franchesca Grace Pagatpat) - while there were a lot of shorts this year that tried to be as dense and as complex as possible, I personally found that the simplest, most stripped down shorts resonated with me the most, as long as it's well made. Goodnight, Dad. I Love You speaks to deeper histories but lets those histories speak through simple actions instead of saying them outright, which makes the whole thing better.

8. Moonlighters (dir. Coby Mercado) - for one, I appreciate the short for having two people discover time stop powers and not immediately go to a life of crime or do unspeakable stuff. Instead, they try to live (relatively) honestly by... minmaxing work and literally working themselves to death even more than they already are. Although it is primarily a laid back romantic comedy, Moonlighters taps into the idea of time and labor, and how people trapped into the mindset of an endless hustle keep themselves trapped in that hustle for the sake of making more and more money.

9. Sa Iyong Pagbalik (Jay-r Julio) - familial distance in this film takes on many forms: emotional (a father literally becoming a projection on the wall) and physical (either through death or through actual distances i.e. being an OFW). The idea, then, of returning, becomes a combination of both - bridging those emotional and physical distances by reconnecting, slowly but surely.

10. ESKOBA (dir. Sherwin De Leon) - in fairy tales, fairies give all sorts of magical rewards to the people they bless: a magical carriage, crystal shoes, a dashing prince. Eskoba turns that idea on its head, using the promise of magical rewards in order to exert personal and political power. 

11. City’s Laundry & Taxes (dir. Diana Galang) - there are some things even a good detergent can't wash off, and that's the subject of this film about a local laundromat whose policeman client has been up to no good. The only way to combat that, this film posits, is to stick to the truth and always hold power to account.

12. When It Rained Malunggay Leaves (dir. Cedrick James Valenzuela) - much like Goodnight, Dad. I Love You earlier in this list, this is yet another short that tackles the complex and sometimes fraught relationship we have with our parents, but in this case, the wounds inflicted by one or both parties is more pronounced, leaving us to witness, at least in a small part, the slow and difficult path towards healing.

13. Ang Luha Ay Bahagi ng Karagatan (dir. Ryner Viray) - it has been a few years now since the end of the pandemic, but there are still one or two that trickle into the general consciousness. This film combines the isolation of having a mental illness with a pandemic that extended that level of isolation to all of us. Inevitably, in the end, all we can really do after such a storm has passed is to hold on to each other and slowly pick up the pieces afterwards.

14. The Next 24 Hours (dir. Carl Joseph Papa) - I love Carl Papa's films but damn are they ever hard to watch on an emotional level because the subject matter is so heavy. This film, detailing the next 24 hours after a sexual assault, shows how it hangs heavy over a person even as they desperately try to escape from the pain of that experience, and how a lack of social support makes it even worse.

15. Caraingin (dir. Edgar Allan Reyes) - while it cribs from examples both international (any found footage horror, but especially the Blair Witch Project) and local (Sherad Sanchez's Salvage) this one is in here mainly because it executes those concepts quite well.

16. Agapito (dirs. Arvin Belarmino, Kyla Romero) - the story of a tenpin bowling alley that holds a little monthly ceremony for a loved one in order to connect with him emotionally may be one of the best things in Arvin Belarmino's short filmography.

17. Honey, My Love, So Sweet (dir. JT Trinidad) - there is a definite sense of place here in this film, a conversation about love, for example, lazily drifts into showing a space that's lived in. It's a film that ties together a love for film (and its history) with queer awakening. JT Trinidad's films have always come from the heart and that's no exception here.

18. Shoes (dir. Sigrid Andrea Bernardo) - as part of some sort of deal with Holy Angel University, director Sigrid Bernardo made at least three short films based on concepts from actual students from the university. My favorite of the three is Shoes, a tale akin to something by O Henry that almost veers into sheer sentimentality but strikes just the right balance.

Animation

19. Duros (dirs. Harvey Gozado & Neil Nunez) - Filipino animation is very much alive and well with this short, rich in worldbuilding and packed with action. Perhaps the only thing I could say about it is that I wished there was more of it; time to expand the already very dense lore in the form of a full length or a series would be something I would sign up for if it ever happened.

20. Paradise (dir. Rose Cruzat) - we all have our ways to find solace or comfort in fantasies and in Paradise, it comes in the form of a handsome man on the TV, a dated reference but sure, lets roll with it. In this (impressively animated) short, there's a push towards balancing both fantasy and reality.

21. Nagahanaw na mga Aninipot (dir. JP Corton) - my favorite animated Filipino short is this one, and while its animation is not as sophisticated compared to the other ones on the list it makes up for it with rich storytelling and themes - tackling the widespread, interconnected effects of climate change on society at large trickling down to the fate of one boy and his family.

Experimental

22. Dangpanan (dir. Stephen Kelly Mahusay) - I suppose the thing that connected with me the most in Dangpanan is the idea of 'home' (wherever it may be, however displaced it may feel) as a safe space that is corrupted by bad people (or rather, bad leaders).

 

23. Cemento (dir. Justine Borlagdan) - another short that combines elements of documentary and experimental filmmaking, this one shares thematic elements from the previous film on this list, but this time it focuses on the construction of human spaces through the medium of concrete, and how that construction facilitates the division of people into social strata, or through the creation of new spaces, how that construction of something new unjustly displaces whatever stood there before.

Documentary

24. The River Flows in Different Places (dir. Lot-lot Hermosura) - many Filipino films have tackled the diaspora of Filipinos moving to other countries for a better life, but rarely do we have a film that works the other way around. In this film we get a glimpse of Palestinian refugees who live in the Philippines; through their sharing, we get to see first hand accounts of how neocolonialism (or just outright 21st century colonialism) creates diasporas in the first place.

25. Para-Paraan (dir. Mae Chan Li) - some of the best movies show and don't tell, and Para-Paraan, a short that depicts one day in the life of a disabled person navigating their way through daily life (including a grocery run at one of the country's largest malls), says a lot even if it speaks very little. The few words at the end that it does speak out loud only reinforces its point even more.

***

It's time for the annual favorites list for feature length films. Out of 197 films, I have 15 that I enjoyed a lot as well as 10 honorable mentions. These are favorites, and not necessarily best (maybe the best for me, but not necessarily for anyone else.) Many of the films from that list of 15 are so close to each other in terms of my level of enjoyment that I will refrain from ranking anything this year. This list will be presented in tiers, and subsequently in alphabetical order.

The first part of this list will be 10 films that I count as:

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Favorite Filipino Full Length Films

in alphabetical order

1. Cinemartyrs (dir. Sari Dalena) - while I'm not still a fan of that (admittedly necessary) first half, it is undeniable that the second half of this film gave us something for the ages. This is an important work whose importance will only be fully known over time.

2. Del Mundo (dir. Milo Tolentino) - regardless if you are familiar with Doy Del Mundo's work, cinephiles will find a treasure trove in this love letter to the renowned director and screenwriter, whether it be small tidbits and pieces of history from the second golden age of Philippine Cinema to various insights from some of the filmmakers shaped and raised by it.

3. Dreamboi (dir. Rodina Singh) - We've had dozens of films just this year about lust and desire from straight, lesbian and gay perspectives, but rarely do we see such films from a trans point of view. Aside from a slightly rough start this was an illuminating watch. It's an interesting addition to Singh's slowly growing body of work.

4. Everyone Knows Every Juan (dir. Alessandra de Rossi) - large families can be a complicated sort. Technically audacious and lifted by a great ensemble performances, this film swung for the fences, and although it's not quite a home run, points for the effort.

5. Journeyman (dir. Christian Paolo Lat) - this is the kind of film we've probably seen a dozen times, but there's always something refreshing in seeing it done this well. It's been overshadowed by other great films this year but for the relatively sparse first half of the year, this sat at the top for me.

6. Manila's Finest (dir. Raymond Red) - there have been a handful of films this year that tackle the idea of history, how we write it, and how we tell stories about it. I am not a big fan of some of the choices here: the pace is a bit slow, the score is a bit sparse, and I can see why some think it seems to project a sense of nostalgia towards the lesser of two evils. But ultimately Manila's Finest's thesis of remembering as resistance against inevitable darkness made a mark on me.

7. Quezon (dir. Jerrold Tarog) -  Quezon is ultimately the punchline to a decade long joke - that heroes are just constructions built on mythmaking by those in power in order to put forward a narrative that suits their needs. Tarog's construction also looks inward at the artist who decides to "depict" history and he wonders, perhaps as a reaction to the public response to the first film, how big of a weight an artist bears over history given context or reinterpreted through art. While it functions by itself, I feel that it works best as an one crucial part of a whole.

8. Salikmata (dir. BC Amparado) - Philippine horror may have gone a bit stale in the past few decades or so since the wave of Asian horror in the late nineties and early 2000s, but there are one or two films that either innovate on the form or provide a fresh new entry to our horror canon. This is not only a decent horror film, its reverse storytelling plays on form in a way I don't see very often in local cinema.

9. Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (dir. Petersen Vargas) - Petersen Vargas' best feature in a while nails its themes of tying together marginalization, class, and personal/bodily autonomy (esp. vis a vis the right of people in the margins to exist.) While it meanders for a short time and veers into abstraction near the middle of the film, I feel it manages to pull itself together by the end.

10. Wash Out (dir. Herbie Docena and Anna Isabelle Matutina) - a companion piece to 2024's Asog, Wash Out tells not only the story of the people of Sicogon Island but the longstanding efforts of activists and NGOs who have come to the island to help out its citizens. It's solid filmmaking and certainly a story worth telling and spreading.

***

15 FAVORITE FILIPINO FULL LENGTH FILMS of 2025

in tiered, alphabetical order

I. films I thought were pretty good

Child no. 82 (dir. Tim Rone Villanueva) - a companion piece to Quezon, all things considered, Child no. 82 explores the cult of celebrity, how showbiz culture facilitates the creation of false idols, and how those false idols affect people and society in many negative ways. It's also pretty entertaining.

Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan (dir. Dustin Celestino) - part angry expression of grief, part Camusian exploration of hope in a seemingly hopeless place. It's anchored by one of the best ensembles of the year.

In Between (dir. Gino Santos) - this pleasant surprise is my personal ideal for a light, breezy romantic film that isn't afraid to be a little spicy. But beyond that (setting aside its middling ending) it touches on ideas of the precariat in the midst of an ever-uncertain gig economy. Props to Sue Ramirez (who was in everything last year) for a career best performance. 

Raging (dir. Ryan Machado) - this film takes its time but once it gets its claws into you, it will leave a mark on you that lasts. At least, that's what it did to me. Raging is an impossible puzzle about unspeakable pain that is expressed both through a person's inner turmoil and through the scarred, denuded landscapes of this film.

The Last Beergin (dir. Nuel Naval) - sometimes the only thing you need to connect to someone and spill your guts out to them (figuratively, but semi literally in this context as well) is a big pitcher of an alcoholic drink of your choice. Or several. My comfort pick in this batch, it's a lot of fun.

II. films I thought were kinda great

Haplos sa Hangin (dir. Mikko Baldoza) - from a film festival about films with horny people doing horny things, this film in particular questions why those films are created in the first place and why we consume them. What exactly is appealing about such an artificial construction? When we use sex in cinema, to what purpose is the sex performed? Add that to all the inspired genre insanity in this film and we have one of the most memorable local films of 2025.

Open Endings (dir. Nigel Santos) - local romcoms are usually nice. By the time people kiss and the credits roll, everything's wrapped up in a neat little bow. Sure, you argue, maybe there's some conflict, maybe some family problems, but everything settles neatly in the end. Open Endings trumps all that by having everyone be a complete fucking mess, just like real life. Even the neatest of social arrangements loses to the second law of (social) thermodynamics, order giving way to disorder, because to gain some closure would mean letting something go, or saying something that needs to be said when silence used to be the comfort option. This is, in a way, an anti-romcom and I like that idea a lot.

Pinikas (dir. Crisanto Fuego) - for many Filipinos, the idea of romance is secondary to the desire for a better life. That tantalizing promise of a poor but loving relationship, oft touted in stories even before film, is a pipe dream in Cris Fuego's solid debut. This is a romance where everyone loses, where the harsh realities of daily life kills any idealism any prospective lovers may have. 

Republika ng Pipolipinas (dir. Renei Dimla) - the concepts of democracy and nationhood may feel distant to many Filipinos living hand to mouth.  When social issues directly affect them and the government offers no help to their predicament, is it not reasonable and just to take matters into your own hands? People are a nation's lifeblood, not any set of rules or expanses of land, this film argues. But aside from that, Republika ng Pipolipinas' filmmakers - both reel and real - turn their gaze to look at themselves in the mirror. As fellow citizens taking part in democracy, Republika ng Pipolipinas asks, should the documentarian's role be that of a passive observer, or as an active seeker of truth?

UnMarry (dir. Jeffrey Jeturian) - while it is relatively conventional compared to the other films in this list, UnMarry is a nuanced and entertaining look at the complicated and expensive process that is annulment. My comfort pick for this tier.

III. films I thought were pretty awesome

Bloom Where You Are Planted (dir. Noni Abao) - one of the qualities of a good documentary is in the way it uses its form to tell very human stories that would otherwise be just a bunch of talking heads. As far as I'm concerned, this film has that quality in abundance. This year in film (and to be frank, this period in history) is about resistance. In a time where everything is uncertain, people resist for the sake of justice, or to fight against an imbalance of power. People resist because their very lives depend on it. People resist because it is the human thing to do. There is nothing more human than wanting everybody to live a decent life, I think, and it is in the little moments of humanity all throughout this film where we can see that endless struggle made flesh.

Magellan (dir. Lav Diaz) - how do you tell history through the lens of art, and have it act as a reclamation of narratives controlled by centuries of colonization? You eschew the textbook treatment and explore through metaphor, creating monsters and myths of your own. You treat the colonizer's expedition as not a rollicking adventure of discovery, but as a profit driven, dishonorable enterprise that leaves only human wreckage in its wake. You depict their movement to circumnavigate the world not as carving a path through the seas, but stagnant, unmoving, waiting for death. You depict the colonizer not as a heroic, honorable man, but as a broken, miserable person, driven to vice and haunted by what he has left behind. This is ultimately less a story about Magellan himself than it is a story about stories, and the many ways we tell them.

Only We Know (dir. Irene Emma Villamor) - this clever riff on the romantic genre may not even strictly be a romantic film at all, at least not in a conventional sense. This is the kind of movie I honestly adore - a relationship not defined by labels, only involving two people who fill up the 'lack' in their respective lives with each other. A lot of local romances fail for me because of the writing and the chemistry between the two leads, and this one passes with flying colors.

ReKonek (dir. Jade Castro) - this local example of hyperlink cinema is my comfort pick for this batch of films. It tickles me seeing that the personal connections of these seemingly unrelated characters only stand out once they stop looking at their phones and actually touch grass. I'm all for cinema that asks its audience to touch grass, more of that please.

Sunshine (dir. Antoinette Jadaone) -  Sunshine is a film about women, told by women, where the most important (and only) decision lay in the hands of a woman. Everything else should frankly be irrelevant. It also shows how, in a society where they are disadvantaged (and are socially conditioned to maintain that disadvantage), they find solace and solidarity with each other. Uncompromising and lifted by Maris Racal's performance, it's an impressive addition to an already impressive body of work.

That's 2025 in Philippine Cinema. See you all next year. Hopefully I won't be as late next time.

2025 Present Confusion Year in Review - World Cinema Favorites

 

Yes, I know I'm slow to the party, but better to be here than not.

I will admit, I haven't seen a lot of foreign films this year in order to service my ongoing project for Filipino cinema. Still, over the past 12 months, either through filmfests, theatrical releases or streaming, I've watched roughly over a hundred non-Filipino films. Yes, I've already posted this list over at various social media sites, though I'd like to say a few words about this list of the 25 films I liked a lot in 2025.

25. Mag Mag (a.k.a. Magamaga Onna, Yuriyan Retriever, 2025) - aside from being an obvious parody and homage to 90s and 2000s J-horror, Yuriyan Retriever's Mag Mag plays on ideas of the Japanese rendition of the monstrous feminine, and more broadly on unrequited 'love' in many forms. Plus points for various bizarre sequences, anus lips (yes) and a completely unhinged sequence set to a Sachiko Nishida enka song.

24. Flat Girls (Jirassaya Wongsutin, 2025) - Jirassaya Wongsutin's tender and bittersweet coming-of-age comes to the realization that not even love can always overcome economic and material realities.

23. Tourist Family (Abishan Jeevinth, 2025) - first of all, no, I was not able to see Madras Matinee, SUN NXT is not available here in the Philippines. In lieu of that, I offer this Tamil film about a Sri Lankan family hiding from authorities in a quiet seaside community. It is melodramatic to a fault, but it works really well.

22. Brand New Landscape (Yuiga Danzuka, 2025) - after watching this at times impenetrable sophomore effort by Yuiga Danzuka, I began to consider the idea of a 'polysemy of spaces', in that the idea of place holds different meaning when loaded with different histories - an ordinary looking rest stop shokudo may mean the last place you saw your loved one alive, or the place where you are reunited with them once more. Add that to the idea that reshaping landscapes for the sake of development also removes histories as well, and it makes for a pretty interesting watch.

21. Palestine 36 (Annemarie Jacir, 2025) - the official Palestinian entry to the Academy Awards' Best International Film category is a sweeping historical epic that shows the many little ways a nation is colonized, a horror film where the monster is in plain sight and its actions are laid bare as it slowly takes away everything you love. It is not surprising at all why continued, unrelenting resistance is the only recourse these characters take.

20. K-Pop Demon Hunters (Maggie Kang, 2025) - This one is my comfort pick for this year, a fun, entertaining romp about accepting one's self. It is no doubt the bane (or pleasure!) of many a parent egged by their kid to play this for the 67th time.

19. The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania, 2025) - watching this film over at QCinema really made me think of the function of film as a way to send a message - in this film, one of the characters (directly based off of the real life responders who took that fateful phone call) tells another to go to social media to post. They are rebuffed, saying that the social media feeds are already filled with burning wreckage and dead bodies, and many of the people scrolling those feeds are so desensitized that they either will not care or the message will be lost in the noise. The Voice of Hind Rajab is a way of cutting through that noise, a way to have us directly connect with the real voice of a child that was killed by occupation forces. It is my hope, on the other hand, that the awareness this film is aiming for will transcend any accolades or awards or best film lists.

18. Mother Father Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch, 2025) - Jim Jarmusch's latest flows breezily, its three humorous and sometimes melancholy family stories hinting at deeper histories unsaid, while we are left to watch the aftermath of those histories in real time.

17. Left Handed Girl (Tsou Shih-ching, 2025) - while it does have a little bit of influence from producer Sean Baker, Left Handed Girl is ultimately a film about women, a film about their evolving roles in contemporary Taiwanese society and the way many women sometimes internalize resistance against that evolution for the sake of tradition. The title, for me at least, hints at this evolution - when in the past using your left hand (or being a woman) is associated with something negative, now those old superstitions sound absurd.  

16. The Land of Morning Calm (Park Ri-woong, 2024) - I particularly enjoy stories like that of The Land of Morning Calm, in which a small, almost innocuous lie slowly but surely snowballs into chaos and upends the relationships in a small, insular community.

15. Resurrection (Bi Gan, 2025) - I wholly admit to not getting all of Bi Gan's sprawling love letter to cinema (if that letter were the size of a novel). But there are some scenes in this film, where dreams and film are one and the same, that left me utterly spellbound.

14. Ne Zha 2 (Jiaozi, 2025) - I would call this my other mainstream pick of the year, if only because it is the highest grossing animated animated film of 2025. Funny, highly entertaining and melodramatic in just the right ways, it's another film I don't mind watching over and over again.

13. Exit 8 (Genki Kawamura, 2025) -  When I first heard about this I wondered, how do you make an adaptation of a very simple video game about a person escaping an endless subway corridor? Little did I know, a lot actually. I absolutely love what Genki Kawamura added to the source material. I love the usage of Bolero (a famously looping musical piece that may have been created by a guy with advancing dementia) as a musical echo to the film form. And finally, I love how the game's liminal horror and endless loop is tied to the purgatory of personal inertia.

12. Human Resource (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, 2025) - there are so many things in this film that remind me of birth and the creation of life, but twisted into a dark version of itself: a long car wash that serves as a birth canal, a job interview that serves to "give birth" to a new employee, the sounds of lovemaking reduced to mechanical noises. It is in many ways an anxious horror film about the bleak prospects of introducing a new life into this world.

11. Jinsei (Ryuya Suzuki, 2025) - aside from the fact that the whole film was animated by one person which is impressive in itself, Jinsei takes us from relatively humdrum beginnings to an indictment of the entertainment industry to pulpy science fiction and ultimately into a transcendent, wordless, utterly strange ending that still sticks with me to this day.

10. Teki Cometh (Daihachi Yoshida, 2024) - rarely does a film switch from terrifying paranoia into deadpan hilarity in the space of a handful of scenes and make it all work. This one does.

9. Blue Heron (Sophie Romvari, 2025) - at first Blue Heron looks like a straightforward account of a childhood indelibly marked by a family crisis, but then it transforms into something introspective, looking at itself in the mirror with the benefit of distance and time, trying to find closure where none truly exists.

 

8. The Way We Talk (Adam Wong, 2024) - there have been many films about the deaf community, but many of those films have been framed from an outsider's perspective looking in - this one, on the other hand, considers how an actual deaf person contends with either accepting their identity as something distinct from the rest of the hearing world, or integrating themselves into a perceived notion of normality.

7. No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook, 2025) - Park Chan-wook's films have their protagonists make decisions whose ends are technically well meaning (in this case, finding financial stability for one's family and finding pride in work that one truly loves) but are driven to extremity. Add that to a certain playfulness with form and we have a film that may not be one of his best, but even an okay film by Park is still something to watch out for.

6. Tomorrow's Min-jae (Park Young-jae, 2025) - no other film in this list left me on the edge of my seat as Tomorrow's Min-jae, where its titular protagonist, perhaps out of guilt from a wrong decision, spends most of the movie trying to do the right thing, even though issues of class and other social hierarchies have corrupted social systems so much that not doing the right thing will always give you the advantage.

5. Rental Family (Hikari, 2025) - Rental Family is an easy film to love. Yes, it is fluff compared to many other films in this list, but I appreciate the way it is a film about acting, about how, in being someone else for somebody, you tap into something beyond yourself, something almost divine.

4. A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2025) - we're living in a world where resistance is needed more than ever. A Useful Ghost demonstrates how memory is integral to resistance - that is, how the act of remembering, whether in personal, cultural, and national scales, is itself a form of resistance. (It's also very funny.)

3. The World of Love (Yoon Ga-eun, 2025) - Few films in 2025 were as quietly devastating as The World of Love, a film about reclaiming your life from unspeakable trauma. I immediately latched on to the idea that everyone in this film does what they do out of love, regardless of whether those actions were appropriate or even right.

2. Kokuho (Lee Sang-il, 2025) - the relentless pursuit of a singular craft is not uniquely a Japanese thing (see Whiplash for a prominent Western filmic example) but they have made so many films about it that it's its own subgenre. Kokuho argues that to become the absolute best at one's craft, one has to lose something in exchange - that is, to become a god, one sheds all that makes them human.

1. Bound in Heaven (Huo Xin, 2024) - rarely do I see a film that rewires my brain in such a way that it changes the way I see every film that follows. While many may view Bound in Heaven and see a well-made, moody arthouse romance thriller that's nothing special, I adore the way it articulates a very intense, possessive kind of love perfectly. It's also gorgeously shot, and a certain cable car sequence will live rent free in my head for decades to come.

*

This is just the first part of our belated roundup! Next up (and finally!) a roundup of Philippine Cinema in 2025.

VMX 2025, In Review

 

Time to bust this out again

In the year of our Lord 2025, 62 Filipino full length feature films were released on the VMX (formerly Vivamax) streaming service. This tally does not include releases from last year (e.g. the Ideafirst collabs such as Table for 3 and Bigayan), compilation specials such as Kiss/Kiss, VMX Rewind, Best of VMX 2025 (recursive!), and the seven films of the Cinesilip Film Festival, which started rolling out streaming releases on the service last month. All of the initial streaming dates for consideration are based on the date the film was first made available via PPV, which discounts Piem Acero's Teacher's Pet (debuted on PPV late 2024, had a wider release January 2025). There is no equivalent example to that this year.

I have seen every single one of those 62 films. I think a little part of my soul died. I am kidding.

Over the past 12 months, I've noticed some things on VMX that I'd like to share.

1. If you haven't noticed already, VMX made less films than the previous year's output of 86 films. That's a decrease of 28 percent. But things aren't as black or white as it looks: while there are less films, they are generally longer. The mid-length 40-50 minute film is gone, replaced by films hovering around the 70 minute mark. At the same time, longer films on VMX are a rarity, and very few films crossed even 110 minutes.

2. The decrease in local output is offset by an increase in output from other sources. Pinku eiga from Japan, softcore films from South Korea and elsewhere, as well as a slew of cheap action movies. BTS content for films continued, though the service also started offering an exclusive VMX plus/VMX Club service with additional content. VMX's sister service Viva One had a few popular releases this year as well, though that's a story for another day.

3. Some actresses from who did work on sexy films or sexy-film adjacent stuff in the late nineties and the first decade of the 2000s made their way onto the service. Krista Miller's appearance on films such as Sponsor was a nice surprise, and though Jem Milton's been in VMX films since the service's first few years, she had a handful of interesting appearances here. But by far the most interesting appearance this year is from Yda Manzano, who had a number of sexy roles in the late nineties and early 2000s. I guess it's VMX trying to appeal to the MILF crowd. She had a few interesting turns this year, but her best outing in my opinion is in Topel Lee's Mamasan, about a veteran strip club manager who forms a motherly bond with the new hire.

4. VMX also started remaking sexy films from that same period. Remakes of Yam Laranas' Balahibong Pusa and Erik Matti's Ekis made their way onto the service, and while they may not be as good as the originals, they are pretty decent, relatively speaking.

5. The inaugural Cinesilip Film Festival made its way to cinemas this year. It was mostly aimed towards the usual audience of VMX, even for films with a wlw theme, but Rodina Singh's Dreamboi, by far the most successful film of that inaugural run, showed that experimentation and audience diversification can draw in crowds.

6, The decreased number of films also coincided with several films that have an IMDB or Letterboxd entry but are not present whatsoever in the service. Some of the films were renamed (Bobby Bonifacio's Paalam, Salamat used to be called Paalam, Ligaya, for example) but some films, like a film called Sex Trip by Lawrence Fajardo, simply disappeared from the VMX service altogether.

VMX Directors and Actors of 2025

Bobby Bonifacio and Roman Perez, Jr. directed the most VMX films in 2025 with seven each, followed by Rodante "Roe" Pajemna and Topel Lee with six each. While Perez Jr fostered talent and directors through his outfit Pelikula Indiopendent (as well as a small, but hilarious role in Jon Red's L: Lakad), Bonifacio found his stride directing VMX films that are slightly different from the usual fare, or otherwise put a spin on familiar tropes.

Rica Gonzales had a bunch of films this year, but she had an interesting turn as a supportive older sister in Ray-An Ludwig Peralta's Hiram and a small but memorable role in Len Carillo's Sembreak. I have a soft spot for this lady, and I hope she doesn't get typecast as pitiful characters next year.

Aliya Raymundo seems to be the actress that VMX is pushing the hardest this year. After a relatively tame start with the middling Elevator Lady, she's been in a number of average films. Some of Raymundo's performances are okay (a mysterious classmate in Sigrid Polon's Mayumi, or as a young woman navigating her relationships in Rain Yamson's Violet), her real standout performance this year is in BC Amparado's Salikmata, a mind-bending Cinesilip horror entry that's told in reverse. 

Speaking of Salikmata, another actor from that film deserves the spotlight as well: Aerol Carmelo spent his time in VMX 2024 playing sleazy characters, but his performance in Salikmata shows that the man has range. Also of note is his turn as a sexual deviant with a cuckolding fetish in Dennis Empalmado's L: Lipad, a complex, fucked up character that's not easy to pull off.

Speaking of sleazy characters, while JC Tan had a number of roles this year with Barurot and Kirot, it's his turn as Bogart in Ronald Batallones' Tusok Tusok that takes the cake for sleaziest character in 2025 Filipino cinema.

Mark Dionisio may not be as much in the spotlight as his other VMX actors, but the roles this man gets are very fun. They're mostly antagonistic roles, but sometimes, like in JR Reyes' Kapag Tumayo ang Testigo, he's goofy as hell. 

Angela Morena is another actress having a decent VMX year: she even won an award for her performance in Pongs Leonardo's Pagdaong. Her performance in Bobby Bonifacio's Sex on Phone is also noteworthy, which also has a pretty great turn from fellow actress Zsara Laxamana.

Azi Acosta may have only appeared in one VMX film this year, but she made it count. She makes the main character in Sigrid Polon's Sorority someone you can truly root for.

And finally, Jenn Rosa had a number of really great performances this year, especially as the lead in Bobby Bonifacio's Kirot, and a small role in Rodina Singh's Dreamboi.

Favorite VMX and Cinesilip Films of 2025 (in no particular order)

Paalam, Salamat (dir. Bobby Bonifacio) - a decades-spanning tale of what I call the ultimate simp, Paalam, Salamat's most meaningful kind of love isn't sexual at all - it is a dedicated life of devotion. I kept on remembering that one person on instagram who said that remembering is more important than loving, or rather, it is the most important kind of love. And conversely, as this films shows, how painful it must be to not be remembered. 

L: Lakad (dir. Mervyn Brondial) - while Brondial may have directed this, writer Jon Red (who also directed another film in this "L" trilogy) has his fingerprints all over this wild and fanciful tale, which can be read as a commentary on VMX itself, consuming sexy 'content' and the pledge to commit to a loving relationship.

Kirot (dir. Bobby Bonifacio) - there are so many interesting thematic ideas in this film - the idea of literally gaining a heart and figuratively gaining the heart to fight back against abuse and the suffocating rigidity and hypocrisy of organized religion.

Sorority (dir. Sigrid Polon) - I've always wondered about the idea of campus frats and sororities, and how they operate to wield and facilitate systems of power (and sometimes, subsequently, abuse). This film does a little exploring in that regard, and shows how in order to challenge that power, one has to break down these systems with their own hands. While this is no Batch '81, it's elevated by a committed performance by Azi Acosta. 

L: Langoy (dir. Jon Red) - this one felt like another blast from the past from Red's digital cinema era, which is also what I said about his other VMX output in previous years. I suppose it's just Jon Red being himself. Esoteric and mysterious, it's a film that's hard to pin down, but it's one that talks about ideas of freedom, isolation and liberation (through relationships or sex.)

Sex on Phone (dir. Bobby Bonifacio) - Bonifacio has already explored the role of sound in sensuality with last year's Ungol, he expands that here. In Sex on Phone, sex isn't just a tangible act, it's also a fantasy, a promise of something unreal. A promise that, when its unreality is exposed, leads to nothing good.

Salikmata (dir. BC Amparado) - One complaint I have when I see a VMX film is that the vast majority of them feel samey, Since your audience isn't exactly watching for the plot, why not experiment or innovate? Salikmata is exactly the kind of film that's the answer to that complaint - formally inventive, well acted and very horny, not to mention creepy (and not always in a pervy way.)

Dreamboi (dir. Rodina Singh) - Another wish I have for VMX is to explore the very idea of desire itself, and Rodina Singh's Dreamboi delivers that in spades. Though it might not be a perfect film, it is one of this year's most important.

Haplos sa Hangin (dir. Mikko Baldoza) - more words about this in my favorites list (because I think it's that good,) but for now let me say this. Haplos sa Hangin is a deconstruction of the sexy films that VMX embodies, taking the tropes of 2000s era softcore and recontextualizing them as horror. It's quite a remarkable film all in all, and not just a good VMX/Cinesilip film, but a good Filipino film period.

***

Hold tight for my next post, which will be a roundup of Filipino Cinema in 2025. How many did I watch? How many do you think I watched? lol.