CinePanalo: The hunt for the next great Filipino indie story isn’t over
Seven films, emerging filmmakers, and a new crop of Filipino stories make CinePanalo the next stop for cinephiles after Cinemalaya.
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Seven films, emerging filmmakers, and a new crop of Filipino stories make CinePanalo the next stop for cinephiles after Cinemalaya.
If Cinemalaya left you with the familiar feeling of wanting more — more Filipino films, more unruly ideas, more stories that would never survive the machinery of a multiplex — there is little time to come down from the high.
The next cinematic hunt begins on 23 September, when the Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival returns for its third edition with seven full-length Filipino films, 20 student shorts, and a new section devoted to completed independent short films.
For anyone still looking for the next Filipino film to obsess over, CinePanalo may be the next rabbit hole.
The seven-film main competition is an eclectic bunch, with each full-length entry receiving a ₱5 million production grant.
There is Apol of My Ai, Thop Nazareno's music-and-family drama starring Rochelle Pangilinan, Zion Cruz, and Zanjoe Marudo. Then there is Patay Gutom, Carl Joseph Papa and Ian Pangilinan's supernatural queer romance, led by Khalil Ramos and Ian Pangilinan.
Stuck on You, directed by Mikko Baldoza and starring Xyriel Manabat and River Joseph, takes the festival in a more offbeat romantic-comedy direction. The lineup also includes Wantawsan, Mono No Aware, Beast, and Multwoh (Patay na Patay Sa'yo).
Taken together, the films suggest a festival unwilling to settle on a single definition of what Filipino independent cinema should look or feel like. Romance sits beside fantasy. Comedy brushes against the supernatural. Coming-of-age stories share space with films that appear far stranger and harder to categorize. And that is precisely where the fun begins.
Festivals have a particular magic when they allow audiences to stumble upon filmmakers before their names become familiar.
CinePanalo's student shorts are designed for precisely that kind of discovery. This year, 20 student films were selected from 267 submissions nationwide, giving emerging filmmakers a theatrical platform for their work.
Then there is Panorama Shorts, a new section featuring 10 completed Filipino short films that will receive their national premieres at the festival.
That addition makes CinePanalo feel bigger than a showcase of films produced with the festival's support. It opens another window into the country's independent filmmaking scene — a place where filmmakers with very different voices are trying to figure out what Filipino cinema can become.
For audiences, it also offers the most enjoyable kind of gamble: sitting down without quite knowing what you are about to discover.
A festival pass costs ₱2,000 and covers the seven full-length competition films and 19 student shorts. Regular tickets are ₱250, while eligible students, seniors, PWDs, national athletes, and Aling Puring and Puregold Perks cardholders can purchase tickets for ₱200.
At regular admission, the pass pays for itself after eight screenings.
Festival passes go on sale at participating cinemas beginning 22 September at Gateway Cineplex 18, followed by the other venues from 23 September. There is no online purchase option.
For someone determined to make a proper festival weekend — or several — out of CinePanalo, that ₱2,000 can turn into a lot of cinema.
CinePanalo 2026 will take over seven venues:
Gateway Cineplex 18
TriNoma
Fairview Terraces
Ayala Malls Feliz
Ayala Malls Circuit
Ayala Malls Manila Bay
Market! Market!
The festival runs from 23 September to 4 October 2026.
There is something encouraging about arriving at another Filipino film festival so soon after Cinemalaya. It means the conversation does not have to end when one festival does.
There are still filmmakers taking risks. There are still strange, tender, funny, unsettling and deeply Filipino stories looking for an audience. And there are still films waiting to surprise us.
The question, as always, is which ones will stay with audiences after the credits roll. Maybe it will be an unusual romance. Maybe it will be a supernatural queer love story. Maybe it will be a student short made by a filmmaker whose name you will remember years from now.
Or maybe it will simply be the film you didn't know you needed to see.
