Directors

Kayla Abuda Galang

Born in Olongapo, Philippines, and raised in San Diego and Houston, Kayla Abuda Galang is an Austin-based filmmaker drawing from the minutiae of my communities, surroundings, and memory. Recently, she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, and her latest film, When You Left Me On That Boulevard, received the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and the Special Jury Award for Vision at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival. She is currently developing her first two feature films: ’06-’07, a suburban high-stakes love story set in 2000s Paradise Hills, and On Earth as it is in Heaven, a comedy about familial grief in modern-day Houston.

Moe Myat May Zarchi

Moe Myat May Zarchi (born in 1994, Myanmar) is a filmmaker, musician and a multidisciplinary artist. Her short films have been screened at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Women Make Waves Int’l Film Festival, Minikino Film Festival and have won awards at Singapore International Short Film Festival (SGIFF), Bangkok Asean Film Festival (BAFF) and UK Asian Film Festival. She was also a finalist in Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize in Moving Image and won the Prince Claus Seed Awards as an Emerging Artist. In most of her works, Moe loves to explore the metaphysical, identity, femininity and personal aspects through innovative use of visuals and sound. She also founded a cinema magazine and organization called “3-ACT” to support cinema education in Myanmar.

Joon Goh

Joon Goh is an independent filmmaker who lives and works in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Seth Andrew Blanca

Seth Blanca has written scripts for promotional videos, films, advocacy videos and documentaries. He has been a seafarer for 2 years. He is the director of Kung sa diin ang suba tarabuan, which won best film and best director at Facine 29.

Niño Maldecir

Niño Maldecir is a filmmaker whose works include Mata kang Busay, a finalist in the 2022 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, Urihi nga Luha, which won various awards at the 17th Bantayan Film Festival, and Sa Hunasan may Santermo, which won 3rd Place at the 32nd Gawad CCP.

Giselle Lin

Giselle Lin is a Singaporean filmmaker. Her undergrad thesis short film Yi Yi (Time Flows in Strange Ways on Sundays) premiered in competition at the 74th Locarno Film Festival. Her upcoming short film project, Children’s Day, participated in the Objectifs Short Film Incubator 2022 while her debut feature project, Midnight Blue Spring, is an alumna of the SGIFF Southeast Asian Film Lab 2021 and won the inaugural 2022 Locarno Residency. Giselle seeks to always tell stories about women, for women.

Stephen Lopez

Stephen Lopez graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in 2012 with a BS in Nursing. But due to the glut of underpaid health care professionals in his country he decided to be broke on his own terms and became a filmmaker instead. He is an alumnus of the NAFF Fantastic Film School 2023 and he has survived in the dystopian cyberpunk city of Manila as a freelance Production Sound Recordist, Sound Designer and sometimes Writer for various films and commercials.

Bea Mariano

Bea Mariano experiments with words, images, sound and video. She also transcribes and translates. At present she is attempting automatic and expressionistic approaches to art-making. Some of her filmic experiments include Dominion (2023), Wound Cities (2019), Ang Persistensiya ng Alaala (2018), Kasaysayan sa mga Pagitan (2016), and mistake, momentum, memory (2013).

She was one of the digital fellows of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum’s Leaky Archive project in 2022, engaging with the institution’s Philippine colonial photographs collection. Currently, she is working on dalumat, dalumhati, dignidad, an online journal of/about decoloniality. She received her BA in Art Studies from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Sam Manacsa

Sam Manacsa worked as Art Director on award-winning films such as Carlo Francisco Manatad’s Whether the Weather Is Fine. Her short film, If People Such as We Cease to Exist (2016), was selected at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Competition. Cross My Heart and Hope To Die (2023) was selected to premiere at the 80th La Biennale Venice International Film Festival in the official Orizzonti Short Films Competition. Her first feature, The Void Is Immense on Idle Hours, is currently in development.

Toan Thanh Doan

Đoàn Thanh Toàn is a choreographer and movement artist based in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Toan was trained in Contemporary Indian dance technique Yorchha™ with Ananya Dance Theater and African-based movement with Brown Spirit Ensemble. After years of performing with the companies, the artist started experimenting with different modes of performance-making at Vietnamese art spaces including MoT+++, San Art, A. Farm, Time Between, and the Goethe Institut, making solos as well as collaborative works with other sound, performance, and visual artists. His most recent project, the dance film Buoyant (2023) is Toan’s directorial debut.

Hoang-Phuc Nguyen-Le

Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc is a filmmaker and film editor based in Saigon, Vietnam. Phuc’s debut short film, “Slowly and Painfully”, was selected for “Dispatches from the Mekong Region: Vietnam” as part of SeaShorts Film Festival 2022. Phuc was a selected participant for UNESCO’s On The Reel Film Lab 2021, and became one of the three winners of the Lab’s awards. As an editor, he has also worked on various films including Coi (2020 International Film Fest Rotterdam Official Selection) and Memento Mori: Earth (2022 Busan International Film Festival Official Selection). Phuc is currently working on his next film, titled “Bury Us in Lone Desert.”

Khozy Rizal

Khozy Rizal is based in Indonesia. He started making films in 2021 with the film MAKASSAR, an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival, BFI Flare and many other festivals. In 2023, he directed BASRI & SALMA IN A NEVER-ENDING COMEDY, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Roxlee

Roxlee is a three-time Lifetime Achievement Awardee for films having been honored by FAMAS, Urian, and Animahenasyon. Rox is the creator of the comic strip “Cesar Asar’’ published in the Manila Bulletin from the 80s to early 2000s. Considered one of the pioneers of independent filmmaking in the Philippines since the early 80s, his earlier films like “Great Smoke” are deemed classics of alternative cinema.

Lino Balmes

Lino Balmes, a Bacoor-based storyteller and filmmaker, is a two-time Carlos Palanca awardee for screenwriting. He holds a Film degree from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and has received documentary film training from the American Film Showcase in Laos. Lino strives to craft skillful narratives with hidden layers in his storytelling, spanning across film, theater, and TV.

Apa Agbayani

Apa Agbayani is a writer and director from Manila working through his feelings with magic. He’s finishing a Film MFA at Columbia University in New York. “Abutan man tayo ng house lights” is his third short film after “Somewhere all the boys are birds” (2023), which premiered at NewFest 35 in New York, and “We kept warm” (2021).

Myra Angeline Soriaso

Myra is a 22-year-old student filmmaker who found her knack for storytelling after discovering Cinematheque Centre Iloilo in August 2018. In 2021, her first short documentary Panambi, co-created with her besties Jane and Katya, premiered internationally at the prestigious Ji.hlava International Film Festival. Now, she will debut as a fiction filmmaker in this year’s QCShorts with A Catholic Schoolgirl, which is also the recipient of Globe Prepaid’s GoWATCH Film Lab seed grant. But most importantly, she co-parents a cute cat named Charlie.

Kim Tae-yang

Born in 1988. He studied Film at Konkuk University. He won the DMC Cornet Prize at the DMC Short FF for Actors (2015). With Snail (2020), he earned the Special Mention from the jury at the Busan Intl. Short FF, the Best Director at the Cheongju Intl. Short FF, and the Excellence Award at the Daegu Short FF. He also won the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent FF for Seoul Cinema (2022).

Jopy Arnaldo

JOPY ARNALDO is Creative Director by day at MullenLowe Treyna, and a would-be director and writer even later at night. He has been obsessively directing short films and music videos, and writing feature film screenplays for the last few years. 

Gitling is his full length film debut.

Patiparn Boontarig

Patiparn Boontarig studied film and photography at Thammasat University in Thailand and completed the Asian Film Academy at the Busan International Film Festival. His short films have been screened at various international film festivals, including the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival. He was first assistant director on Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s Manta Ray (2018) and Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s Anatomy of Time (2021). Solids by the Seashore is Boontarig’s feature directorial debut.

Nicole Midori Woodford

Nicole Midori Woodford (Singapore, 1986) has written, directed and edited the short films For We Are Strangers (2015), a competitor at the Busan and Singapore festivals, Waiting Room (2018), Tenebrae (2018) and Permanent Resident (2018), selected among other festivals for Clermont-Ferrand and Busan. In 2021 she directed The Excursion, an episode of the HBO mini-series Asia Folklore, premiered at Tokyo Festival. She has studied at Berlinale Talents, the Asian Film Academy, Torino Film Lab and Talents Tokyo. Last Shadow at First Light is her feature-length debut.

Lee Hong-chi

Lee Hong – Chi is a Taiwanese actor. He is best known for starring in the film Thanatos, Drunk, for which he was named Best New Performer at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards and Best Actor at the 17th Tail Film Awards. Recently, He has starred in or participated in more than 10 Feature Films, including Long Day’s Journey into the night ( Cannes 2018, Un Certain Regard),Cities of Last Things ( Toronto 2018,Platform Prize), Baby (San Sebastian & Toronto 2018), Tigertail (Produced and Distributed by Netflix)

Love Is a Gun will be his First Feature Film, written, directed by, and starring himself.

Jin Ong

Ong is the founder of Moore Entertainment Co., Ltd., and is a veteran in the entertainment industry. He has more than 20 years of experience in the record industry and artist management, and is a renowned Malaysian film and television producer. His filmography as a producer includes The Gathering (2014), Shuttle Life (2017), The Paradise (2019), In My Heart (2019), and Miss Andy (2020), and Shuttle Life was the first Malaysian project to win the grand prize at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Project Promotion. Abang Adik is his directorial debut, and it won the MirrorFiction Story Award and the FPP Visionary Award at the Golden Horse FPP,

Amanda Nell Eu

Amanda graduated from the London Film School. Her short film It’s Easier to Raise Cattle premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival and received a Special Mention at the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand. Amanda is an alumni of the Berlinale Talent Campus and Locarno Filmmakers Academy. In her work, she explores the female body and identity within the cultural context of Southeast Asia. Tiger Stripes is her debut feature film.

Pham Thien An

Pham Thien An is a film director, producer and screenwriter, born in Nov 1989 (Lam Dong Province, Vietnam). After four years of undergraduate studies in Information Technology at Lotus University, Ho Chi Minh City, he realized his interest in cinematography and filmmaking. In recent years, he has won several film awards in Vietnam. In 2015, he moved to Houston, Texas (USA) and continued working as a freelance filmmaker. His short film THE MUTE (2018) has travelled across several film festivals (Winterthur, Palms Spring, Uppsala, Encounters…). And also, this year he shot STAY AWAKE, BE READY was supported by CJ Short Film Making Project.

Vietnamese director Pham Thien An won the Camera d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell. It marked just the second Vietnamese film directed by a Vietnamese filmmaker to screen at Cannes, where it played in Directors’ Fortnight.

JT Trinidad

JT Trinidad is a filmmaker born and raised in Pandacan, Manila. Their short ‘as if nothing happened’ competed at the London Short Film Festival 2022 and was included in CNN Life Philippines’ list of Best Filipino Films of 2020. Their short “like people, they change too” is one of the grantees of Pelikultura: The Calabarzon Short Film Festival. 

Their short “the wheels have stopped from rolling” premiered at the SeaShorts Film Festival 2022, Malaysia. Their short titled “even if cities would vanish, we will remain” is selected at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic. Their short “the river that never ends” is set to premiere at the QCinema International Film Festival 2022 and competed at Anima’s GoWatch Film Lab: The Greenlight Pitch Competition.

They were an alumnus of Ricky Lee’s Screenwriting Workshop, Mowelfund Film Institute, and New York-based nomadic film school Film Futura.

Jaime Morados

Jaime Morados, from Biñan, Laguna, started making films at the age of 14. Currently studying film in MINT College, his works have been selected and awarded in local and international film festivals. He won the Jury Prize at the Binisaya Film Festival for his film PROTACIO AND THE BUM (2021), Best Picture in Montañosa Film Festival and a Special Citation in Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino for his film AGA-HIW, THE DREAMER (2022). In his films, he playfully mixes fantasy, comedy, and drama, with his love for Philippine history and culture.

Austin Tan

Austin Tan is a film director and scriptwriter hailing from Tuguegarao, Philippines. He makes short and experimental films that tackles political and social topics through concepts that deal on memory and death, and stories of the underprivileged and the voiceless.

His short film, HAPPY 2023RD BIRTHDAY MYLENE! screened locally and internationally, including winning best picture and screenplay in Black Beret and selection to CineFilipino in 2018. Now, Austin is working with KT House Productions for his first feature film titled, LOST MEMORIES IN TRANSIT, which received project development support from Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Locarno Open Doors, SGIFF Southeast Film Lab, Full Circle Philippines, EAVE Ties That Bind and FDCP’s CreatePH.

Rocky De Guzman Morilla

Rocky Morilla is a UPFI graduate based in Marikina. 

She focused on cinematography in university, working as part of the camera department for films such as CinemaOne Origina’s Asuang and QCShorts 2019 Best Film Judy Free. 

She co-founded Pothos collective in 2020, a group that explores emancipative and novel approaches to filmmaking cultivated by the community’s lived experiences and struggles. With the collective, she directed Ang Pagsuyo sa Paru-Paro ng Gabi (2021) under FDCP’s first-ever International Silent Film Festival. She also won the 2021 Gawad Sining Award for Best Cinematography for her work in Nang Maglublob Ako sa Isang Mangkok ng Liwanag (2021).

Whammy Alcazaren

WHAMMY ALCAZAREN is a director and production designer for films and advertising.

His most recent work for Carlo Manatad’s “WHETHER THE WEATHER IS FINE” won Best Production Design in the FAMAS and the Metro Manila Film Festival Awards. The Young Critics Circle has awarded him as well for Best Achievement in Visual Design twice for his work with Thesa Tang for the Cinemalaya Festival film “DAGITAB” and the film “DEATH OF NINTENDO” by Raya Martin. 

FISTING: NEVER TEAR US APART was his third feature film for which he won Best Director and Jury prize at the Cinema One Originals Film Festival 2018. His Production Thesis and first feauture, COLOSSAL, was awarded Best Cinematography and was nominated for best film at the Gawad Urian 2013.

John Torres

Joel Ferrer

Alvin Yapan

Jed Medrano

Rob Jara

Arnel Mardoquio

Neal Tan

Baby Ruth Villarama

Cha Escala

Mike Cabardo

Real Florido

William Mayo

Edgardo Boy Vinarao

Jose Carreon

Barbara Politsch

Abet Umil

Joolia Demegilio

Brian Quesada

Choy Pangilinan

Perry Dizon

Will Fredo

Universe Baldoza

Lemuel Lorca

Cesar Hernando

Chuck Gutierrez

Pepe Diokno

Mario Cornejo

Gabrielle Patrice Tayag

Victor Dennis Nierva

Aedrian Araojo

Aedrian Araojo is a Mindanaoan filmmaker from Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay. He is best known for his 2016 short film, “Hondo,” which won the best short film at the QCinema International Film Festival and competed at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival. His other works include The Extinguished Light of Home (2013); When Curiosity Kills the Cat (2014); and Displaced (2020), an experimental war short film, which won the Best Director in the inaugural Bangsamoro Film Festival in Cotabato City and was chosen as one of the exhibition films in Cinemalaya 2020.

Celeste Lapida

Janus Victoria

Eduardo Dayao

Inshallah Montero

Roderick Cabrido

Sheron Dayoc

Victor Villanueva

Kristian Sendon Cordero

Prime Cruz

Bagane Fiola

HF Yambao

Epoy Deyto

Carl Joseph Papa

Mike Esteves

Phyllis Grande

Kiri Lluch Dalena

Keith Deligero

Ice Idanan

James Robin Mayo

Dominic Lim

Mikhail Red

Pam Miras

Jobin Ballesteros

Emerson Reyes

Christopher Gozum

Christopher Gozum studied Film in the University of the Philippines and is an alumnus of the 2006 Asian Film Academy (South Korea). His films received the Cultural Center of the Philippines Award for Alternative Film and Video (2005), as well as the Best Short Film (2007), the Ishmael Bernal Award for Young Filipino Filmmaker (2008), the Lino Brocka Grand Prize (2009) and the Best Director Award (2009), all in the Digital Lokal section of the Cinemanila International Film Festival. Gozum was an overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia from 2007 to 2015. He is now based in his hometown of Bayambang.

Khavn

Khavn (born 1973, Manila) is a poet, novelist, songwriter, pianist, and filmmaker known for hi punk, innovative, and genre bending cinema. The father of Philippine digital filmmaking, Khavn has made 51 features and 115 short films. He has served as jury member at the Berlinale, Clermont-Ferrand, CPH:DOX, Jeonju, BiFan, Jihlava, & Dok Leipzig film festivals and has exhibited at the MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome, National Museum of Singapore, and Venice Biennial Architecture. He has lectured at the Berlinale Talent Campus, Bela Tarr’s Film Factory, Goethe Institute Nigeria, and he Danish Film Institute, and has curated programs for Viennale, Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Sharjah Biennial.

Hiyas Baldemor Bagabaldo

Hiyas Baldemor Bagabaldo grew up in a family of artists and craftsmen in Paete, a small artisanal town in the Philippines. With a degree in Digital Filmmaking, she started merging her background in traditional arts with digital media that gave her an edge in visual storytelling. Most of her works are invested in visual elements. Her approach is experiential, aiming to blur and reveal correlation, contradiction, and multiple meanings behind constructed socio-political realities, personal and public spaces, Filipino colonial past, spiritual beliefs, and human strengths and weaknesses.

Wena Sanchez

Wena Sanchez is a filmmaker from Leyte. In 2014, she co-directed “Nick and Chai” — a documentary feature which won Best Picture at the QCinema Film Festival in 2014 and screened at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Busan IFF, and other festivals. All Grown Up is her second film.

Dwein Baltazar

Dwein Baltazar, first and foremost, is a mother, who has a love- hate relationship with writing and still dreams of becoming a theatre actress. Currently, Baltazar writes and directs for mini-series and movies. Her debut film, “Mamay Umeng” (2012) took home the Best Picture prize at the 14th Jeonju International Film Festival held in South Korea. Baltazar’s sophomore feature, “Gusto Kita With All My Hypothalamus” is set to have its international premiere at Busan International Film Festival this October 2018.

Gutierrez Mangansakan II

Born in 1976, in Cotabato, Southern Philippines, Gutierrez Mangansakan II is a keen observer of Southeast Asian cinema and one of the leading figures of the Regional Cinema New Wave movement in the Philippines. He has produced, written, and directed prize winning films such as “Limbunan” (The Bridal Quarter) which closed the Venice Critics Week section in 2010, “Cartas de la Soledad” (Letters of Solitude, 2011), “Qiyamah” (The Reckoning, 2012), “Daughters of the Three-Tailed Banner” (2015), and “Forbidden Memory” (2016).

Dan Villegas

Dan Villegas started his career as a cinematographer for Cathy Garcia-Molina, Mae Cruz-Alviar, Joyce Bernal, and Antoinette Jadaone. His first full-length film is the 2010 Cinemalaya coming-of-age Mayohan, which won Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography – for Villegas himself. In 2014, he directed “English Only, Please” at the Metro Manila Film Festival – and it was the beginning of his career as a director. He has since directed 10 movies. “Hintayan ng Langit” is his return to his independent cinema roots.

Timmy Harn

Timmy Harn has made short films that have participated in local and international film festivals. One of them, “Class Picture” (as Tito & Tito with filmmaker Gym Lumbera) was screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival New Waves Program. It also won Best Experimental Film at the 2011 Gawad CCP Short Film Festival. His first feature “Reptilia in Suburbia” received several nominations in the 2013 Cinema One Originals Film Festival. The film is also an official selection in the Olhar de Cinema-Curitiba International Film Festival 2014 and had its North American premiere at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Samantha Lee

Samantha Lee is a filmmaker who advocates for better representation of women and the LGBTQ+ community in local cinema. Her first film, “Baka Bukas” has won various awards both here and abroad, most notably winning the “Emerging Talent Award” at Outfest 2017- the biggest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world.

Aleia Garcia

Aleia Garcia is a filmmaker from the Philippines. Her first documentary, Yanbu, competed in the longest running short film festival in Asia,
Gawad CCP for Independent Film and Video and won 3rd place in the documentary section. It also competed and won Best Screenplay in Nabunturan Film Exhibition held at Compostella Valley, Philippines. Spring by the Sea is her first film.

Grace Pimentel Simbulan

After graduating from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Film, Grace received a grant from the European Union as part of their project entitled “In Defense of Land and Life: Addressing Human Rights Concerns of Indigenous Peoples in Resource Conflict Areas” to produce a mid-length documentary film. As a follow up to this project, she immersed in the same community for more than eight years while producing the feature-length documentary film A is for Agustin.

Jet Leyco

Jet Leyco is a critically-acclaimed filmmaker based in Manila. He has directed four feature films in different genres that were exhibited in various festivals locally and abroad. He has directed and photographed over a hundred TV documentaries for the biggest media conglomerate in the Philippines – ABS-CBN.

He graduated Cum Laude in Far Eastern University in 2009. Leyco currently teaches Film Appreciation at the Asia Pacific Film Institute.

Norvin De Los Santos

Norvin De los Santos is a writer-director from Mandaluyong City. After graduating with a Business Administration degree from Jose Rizal University in 2013, he took up Basic Motion Picture production at the Asia Pacific Film Institute in 2016.

His first short film Papang (Father, 2016) won Best Film at the San Juan Film Camp, and was in competition at the Cinema One Originals short film program. His second short film Hele ng Maharlika (Lullaby of the Free, 2019) won a Special Mention award at the Cinemalaya Film Festival, and was screened in exhibition at the Active Vista Human Rights Film Festival. He participated in the Active Vista Film Lab, where he developed his upcoming short film Isang Daa’t Isang Mariposa (101 Butterflies, 2019).

Sonny Calvento

Sonny Calvento is a director, writer and producer from the Philippines. He was a fellow of the Hanoi International Film Festival Directing and Producing Studio where he was awarded Best Talent in Directing and Producing.

In 2019, he produced John Denver Trending, a film that won Best Film, NETPAC Jury Award, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Musical Score in Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. The film is set to compete and premiere internationally in Busan International Film Festival. Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss is his first short feature film.

Che Tagyamon

Che Tagyamon is a director, editor, and animator from Manila, Philippines.

Her previous works often address the subjects of diaspora, class, and memory in relation to women’s psyche. Her hybrid short film “Judy Free” was developed at Berlinale Talents Short Form Station in 2019 and was among the grantees of the first edition of Southeast Asian Short Film Grant. She is an alumna of Busan Asian Film Academy, SGIFF SEALab, and Asean ROK’s FLY Film Lab among others.

Joanne Cesario

Joanne Cesario is a Filipina short filmmaker and zine creator. She grew up in Tanauan, Batangas and moved to Metro Manila at age 15. Before deciding to enter the Film program of the University of the Philippines, she first became a student activist and organizer. Both her childhood experiences and political undertakings have largely influenced her work. She melds personal and collective histories and memories in addressing matters such as labor, female identity, and ever-shifting landscapes both natural and beyond. She often approaches them through a magical and dreamlike lens.

Alejo Barbaza

Alejo Barbaza is a filmmaker who takes interest in scriptwriting and sound. He graduated from the University of the Philippines Film Institute.

Mervine Aquino

Mervine Aquino is a filmmaker and writer from Baguio City, and is a recent graduate of the University of the Philippines Film Institute. He has made several short films including “Interlude (Are you having fun?)” and “Baguio Address No. 10”, and also worked as editor several feature length films.

Carla Pulido Ocampo

Carla Pulido Ocampo is an editor, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. She started out in film by composing theme songs and guitar-based scores for her classmates’ shorts, at the then Film Department of the College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines – Diliman, where she graduated cum laude in 2005.

Currently, she is best known as the writer of the documentary film Walang Rape sa Bontok (international title: Bontok, Rapeless) which won the Gawad Urian award for Best Documentary in the year 2015, and which was shown in the Festival Internacional Signos da Noite in Portugal for two consecutive years (2016 and 2017).

Glenn Barit

Glenn Barit is a Filipino filmmaker, sound designer and scorer from Tuguegarao City, Cagayan. He likes to play around with his works because filmmaking is very hard and expensive.

His film “Aliens Ata”  won him the NETPAC Jury Prize in the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival 2017 and has screened in Kaohsiung Film Festival and SEA Shorts among others. “Cleaners”, his debut feature film, won Best Film, Best Screenplay and Audience Choice Award at QCinema IFF Asian Next Wave Section 2019 and has since screened in Busan IFF, Taipei Golden Horse FF and Torino FF among others.

Rae Red

Rae Red is a screenwriter and filmmaker. She wrote the Philippine entry to the 90th Academy Awards, Birdshot (2017). Her short film, Luna (2016), was a finalist at the CineFilipino Film Festival Short Features category. Her first feature film, Si Chedeng at Si Apple is a finalist at the 2017 Cinema One Originals Film Festival. Si Chedeng at Si Apple has participated in the Far East Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Frameline, Cinema Queer, Kansai Queer Film Festival, and Cinematografo. Babae at Baril is her first solo directorial film.

Arnel Barbarona

Arnel ‘Arbi’ Barbarona is a Davao-based film director and cinematographer, whose first full length film Tu Pug Imatuy (The Right to Kill) earned him Best Director awards from Gawad Urian and Famas in 2018 and Sinag Maynila Festival in 2017.

A product of the Mindanao Film Festival/ Guerilla Film Making, Barbarona collaborated with award-winning Mindanao directors (Arnel Mardoquio, Teng Mangansakan and Sheron Dayoc), earning him awards at Gawad Tanglaw 2014, Mindanao Film Festival 2015 and the Young Critics Circle Award 2013.

Xeph Suarez

Xeph Suarez is a Mindanaoan filmmaker based in Manila, Philippines. He has directed a number of short films including Si Astri maka si Tambulah, which won Best Director and received a Jury Citation at the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival 2018. The film was screened in several international film festivals, including PÖFF Shorts – Tallinn Black Nights and Tampere Film Festival.

He is the producer of the 2016 QCinema International Film Festival’s Best Short Film, Hondo. The film was later competed at the 2017 Jogja- NETPAC Asian Film Festival.

He is currently developing his first feature film Dancing the Tides, which has participated at the Full Circle Lab, Singapore International Film Festival’s Southeast Asian Film Lab, EAVE’s Ties that Bind, and La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut français in Cannes.

Chuck Escasa

Chuck Escasa was born and raised in Pasig, Rizal. He is married to Ilongga filmmaker Aimee Apostol-Escasa. They live in Tagaytay.

Mihk Vergara

Mihk Vergara is a Filipino writer and director for tv, digital and film since 2004. While having dipped his hands in advertising, music video, tv and film it is his love for telling stories that continues to drive him forward in whatever medium he finds himself expressing himself in.

Over the course of his career he has served as series planner and writer for the mystery thriller show Jasmine for the Philippine Network TV5, head writer for Project Runway Philippines Season 1, series planner, episode writer and director on the cult underground show, Rakista, and director for the children’s show, Alex and Amie.

A fan of collaboration, he has co-directed two shorts with his fellow filmmakers: the drama-comedy, Ang Maskot with Chris Costello and the special effects comedy, Carpioman with Miko Livelo. He has also helped adapt the South Korean drama, Tunnel, for the Indonesian market under Base Entertainment with Zig Marasigan and Tanya Yuson.

His first feature film, Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo, won the Audience Choice and Gender Sensitivity awards when it was released in 2015 at the QCinema International Film Festival and was screened at the
Special Programs, New Action! Southeast Asia section of the Osaka Asian Film Festival in 2017. His latest work is writing for the Netflix Original Anime Series, Trese.

Miko Livelo

Miko Livelo is a Filipino film and TV director. After studying Fine Arts majoring in Advertising from the University of Sto. Tomas, he took up Film at the Asia Pacific Film Institute (APFI).

He started his career as a motion graphics artist and soon directed his first film, Blue Bustamante (2013), his entry to the Cinema One Film Festival, where it won Best Production Design. The film premiered internationally at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.

In 2014, together with filmmaker Joel Ferrer, Miko established the company PUNCHKICK, where he wrote and directed series, ads and films. His most famous series is Tanods, a digital series under D5 Studio about a ragtag group of neighborhood watch. He also directed Sa Ngalan ni Ultimate Warrior (In the Name of Ultimate Warrior), a short film for the QCinema International Film Festival 2014 about a kid’s love for wrestling.

He joined The Ideafirst Company shortly after and directed #ParangNormal Activity (2016, TV5) and I Love You To Death (2016, Regal films). He recently finished directing two films, a friendship-comedy film, ‘Tol (2019) and Unlilife (2019), a fantasy-comedy adventure film.

His filmmaking is based on his personal experiences wrapped in humor, family and love for Japanese pop culture.

Kaj Palanca

Kaj Palanca is a writer, researcher, and filmmaker. At sixteen, he co-wrote and co-directed the short film Contestant #4, which won the Audience Choice Award at the 2016 QCinema International Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the first Shanghai Queer Film Festival. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman, Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. He hopes to teach cinema someday.

Maria Estela Paiso

Maria Estela Paiso has been in post-production since 2016 and has edited two feature films and several shorts. The themes of her personal projects revolve around memory and often use techniques that attempt to make tangible what has already passed. Her post-production background plays a major role in her DIY shorts and music videos. In 2021, she forayed into directing with her short film Ampangabagat Nin Talakba Ha Likol. In between dreaming about the films she wants to make, she spends her free time trying to get a 100 at karaoke and watching the downpour of frogs outside her window.

Trishtan Perez

Trishtan Perez is a filmmaker from Pagadian City and is a graduate of the University of the Philippines with a degree in Film. He is the director of short films like Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (2018) and The Man Who Isn’t There and other Stories of Longing (2019) which recently received the Special Citation award in Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino: Sine Isla Luzviminda. He is a fellow of the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop and Mindanao Film Lab. His latest project i get so sad sometimes was developed under the Objectifs Short Film Incubator in 2020.