Carlo Enciso Catu
Director
Bradley Liew, April Batican
Producer
Philippines
Country
Logline
Through the telling of lies, deceit and murder; three damaged souls seek to mend their broken selves through the love of another. But no one is able to hold the gaze of their lover, under the shadow of the ever-present third.
Carlo Enciso Catu
Carlo Enciso Catu is a 29 year old, multi-awarded Filipino filmmaker from the region of Pampanga. His work seeks to explore the trauma surrounding the Philippine family, the normalisation of LGBTQ+ centric-stories and the balancing both artistic and commercially viable works.
His debut film, Ari: My Life With A King premiered at the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) and was named one the 50 Best Filipino Films of the 21st Century by Pinoy Rebyu (Society of Filipino Film Reviewers). In 2016, he was the youngest Gawad Urian nominee for Best Director (Philippines’ equivalent to the Oscars).
Carlo also works in narrative tv; directing and writing three full series (Misis Piggy, My Delivery Gurl, My Single Lady) and part of an anthology (Now Streaming); all available on major Philippine streaming platforms such as iWant and CignalPlay.
He is an alumnus of Full Circle Lab, ASEAN-ROK Film Leaders Incubator (FLY Cambodia 2016, FLY Higashikawa 2017, FLY Alumni Program Singapore 2018),
Cinepanulat: Ang Screenwriting Lab ni Jun Lana where he won the Best Screenplay Award for Lilac, and the 14 Sundays Scriptwriting Workshop of Ricky Lee where his script, Hold My Gaze was born.
April Batican
April Batican is a Filipino producer from Epicmedia Productions. She has transitioned from advertising to film production and never looked back.
She has spent the past six years building her experience, and learning the craft – starting with apprenticeships and working her way up to line producing local films and producing international co-productions. April also produces commercials, branded content, and series content for Filipino streaming sites.
She is fuelled by curiosity and believes that there is no substitute for a great story based on a solid insight that speaks to a universal truth. She hopes to develop thought provoking films that tell meaningful stories. April is an alumna of Rotterdam Lab, SGIFF SEA Producers Network, Tribeca Film Institute (Luang Prabang Talent Lab), and Full Circle Lab.
April recently produced Mighty Robo V (QCinema Shorts 2021 Audience Choice, Fantasia IFF 2022), and Kerwin Go’s black comedy, Mina-Anud (Cinemalaya 2019 Closing Film, Hawaii IFF 2019), and line produced Johanna Pyykkö’s short, #e Manila Lover (Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2019), Bradley Liew’s Motel Acacia (Tokyo IFF – Asian Future 2019), and Kenneth Dagatan’s In My Mother’s Skin (Sundance 2023 Midnight Section, Rotterdam IFF 2023). She is currently producing Carlo Enciso Catu’s Hold My Gaze (Full Circle Lab 2019).
Bradley Liew
Malaysia born, Manila-based, Bradley Liew is the CEO and Head of Project Acquisitions & Development of Epicmedia Productions Inc. He’s an alumnus of the Asian Film Academy, where he was Awarded Lumos Award for Outstanding Performance from celebrated Chinese !lmmaker Jia Zhangke; the NAFF Fantastic Film School, Berlinale Talents, Talents Tokyo, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, EAVE Ties #at Bind and the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab. He’s the Group Leader for the Malaysian Development Lab for Fiction Feature Films (Mylab) and has also served as part of the jury at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
As a Producer, he focuses on championing both seasoned and upcoming directors with distinct and uncompromising voices. From producing Lav Diaz’s anti-musical: Season Of !e Devil (Berlinale Main Competition), his 16mm analogue !lm-noir When !e Waves Are Gone (Venice Out of Competition) and Essential Truths of the Lake (Locarno Main Competition). He has also worked on Gerardo Calagui’s Transgender Drama, !ose Long Haired Nights (IFFR, Thessaloniki); to the genre coproduction Nocebo starring Eva Green and Mark Strong, Truong Minh Quy’s Viet and Nam (Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, France, Netherlands), and most recently Kenneth Dagatan’s Sundance Midnight Section’s In My Mother’s Skin which was sold to Amazon.
As a Director/Producer, his debut feature, a Malaysian-Philippine coproduction entitled Singing in Graveyards made its world premiere in-competition at the Venice International Film Festival Critics’ Week. It went on to compete and screen in over 30 festivals and won best film in both Kolkata and Malaysia. His sophomore feature, the creature-horror Motel Acacia, made its world premiere in the Asian Futures Competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and was the closing !lm of the Jogja Netpac Film Festival. The film was sold to North America, Japan and multiple territories in Southeast Asia.
He has done extensive work in the realm of narrative series as a show runner for Astro Malaysia’s Boo: A Philippine Horror Anthology and Cignal TV’s Now Streaming. He was also the writer-director for the detective-noir series, The Tapes (iWant & Net%ix) and HBO’sFolklore 2: Ayizah, Ayizah.