Oscar contender, Cannes winners hit PHL screens
It’s a compact snapshot of the festival circuit — screening for one week, at P250 per ticket — and a rare chance to see how this awards season narrative plays out on the big screen.
Text size
It’s a compact snapshot of the festival circuit — screening for one week, at P250 per ticket — and a rare chance to see how this awards season narrative plays out on the big screen.
CASE 137 (Dossier 137) is a crime drama that stars Lea Drucker and Jonathan Turnbull.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF VARIETY.COM
A neo-noir political film is The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto) set during during Brazil’s military dictatorship.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LA TIMES
THE Blue Trail (O Último Azul) centers on a 77 year old who refuses government relocation. The movie star’s Denise Weinberg with Rodrigo Santoro as co-star.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SCREENDAILY
With the 98th Academy Awards set for 15 March 2026 in the U.S. (16 March in the Philippines), the Film Development Council of the Philippines’ (FDCP) latest World Cinema lineup arrives at the perfect time—bringing major festival winners and Oscar nominees to Philippine screens just days before Hollywood’s biggest night.
FDCP’s World Cinema slate returns for Round 2, running 11 to 17 March 2026 in select cinemas nationwide for P250 a ticket. Here’s what’s on deck:
If you follow the Cannes circuit, Dominik Moll’s name isn’t exactly random. The French director — working again with co-writer Gilles Marchand — brought Case 137 to the main competition at Cannes on 15 May 2025, where it was in the Palme d’Or race. The crime drama, led by Léa Drucker alongside Jonathan Turnbull, Mathilde Roehrich, Guslagie Malanda and Stanislas Merhar, kept its momentum going at home: eight César nominations, with Drucker taking Best Actress.
Then here’s the big one. Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent is a 2025 neo-noir political thriller set during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Wagner Moura plays a former professor trying to escape persecution, with Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leone, Alice Carvalho, Hermila Guedes, Isabél Zuaa and Udo Kier (in his final film role) rounding out the cast.
It premiered in competition at Cannes on 18 May 2025 — and basically swept. Best Director, Best Actor, FIPRESCI Prize, Art House Cinema Award. And it didn’t stop there. At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it became the first Brazilian film nominated for Best Motion Picture — Drama, winning Best Actor (Drama) and Best Foreign Language Film. Now it’s headed to the 98th Academy Awards on 13 March 2026 with nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Casting and Best International Feature Film.
Gabriel Mascaro’s The Blue Trail takes a different lane. The dystopian drama, co-written with Tibério Azul, centers on 77-year-old Tereza (played by Denise Weinberg), who refuses a government relocation order aimed at the elderly and instead heads into the Amazon. Rodrigo Santoro co-stars.
The film premiered in competition at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on 16 February 2025 and walked away with the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. A socially charged premise, lean 86-minute runtime, it made its mark on the 2025 circuit.
On the more intimate end is Don’t Tell Mother, directed by Anoop Lokkur. The 88-minute India–Australia coming-of-age drama follows nine-year-old Aakash navigating childhood: messy, mischievous, and complicated. The film traveled the regional festival route: Busan International Film Festival in 2025 under A Window on Asian Cinema, International Film Festival of Kerala the same year (Indian Cinema Now), and the 2026 Bengaluru International Film Festival. Smaller in scale, but firmly planted in the Asian festival ecosystem.
From Cannes competition slots to a Berlin Silver Bear winner and a multi-nominated Oscar title, this lineup reflects where international cinema stood in 2025. It’s a compact snapshot of the festival circuit — screening for one week, at P250 per ticket — and a rare chance to see how this awards season narrative plays out on the big screen.
A traditional dish called zongzi is served during China’s Dragon Boat Festival, which falls in June. It is a rice…
Divina credited the firm’s achievements to its members, thanking them for their ‘hard work, dedication, teamwork, and…
‘Sec. Vince Dizon, please explain how this finding of your own team should not be flagged as a ghost project in Taguig.’
