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by Lé Baltar

Chuck Escasa‘s latest work, “Ghosts of Kalantiaw,” which was among the recipients of a grant from the Singapore International Film Festival where it also had its world premiere last year, presents a chilling argument for the post-truth era. Past this, the documentary interrogates how mythmaking has eroded many inner lives in the Philippines and has become a pivotal factor in the return of another Marcos to the country’s top post, 36 years after the ouster of his dictator father from power. The film now screens at the Sinag Maynila Independent Film Festival.

The film tours us around the sights of Batan, a small town in the province of Aklan situated in the northwest portion of Panay Island. It introduces us to its people, the Batangnons, who take pride, or “bugal” as they put it, in the history of their place. And it’s a history that...

Following up his Golden Lion-winning drama The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz is returning to Berlinale 2018 with his latest film, Ang Panahon ng Halimaw aka Season of the Devil. Described as an “anti-musical musical, a rock opera, that delves into mythology,” the first trailer has now arrived ahead of the premiere in competition later this month.

According to The National, the film features 33 songs composed by the Filipino director himself and the story, which takes place during former president Ferdinand Marcos’s military dictatorship, follows “a man whose wife has been abducted in their remote village.”

Starring Piolo Pascual, Shaina Magdayao, Pinky Amador, Bituin Escalante, Hazel Orencio, Joel Saracho, Bart Guingona, Angel Aquino, Lilit Reyes, and Don Melvin Boongaling, see the trailer below via CineMaldito.

Season of the Devil will premiere at Berlinale 2018.

Rupert Everett’s The Happy Prince and Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Unga Astrid picked for Berlinale Special.

Source: Wiki Commons

Steven Soderbergh, José Padilha

Five more films have joined the main lieups of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). A further six films have been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.

Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane will get an out of competition world premiere. It stars Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah and Juno Temple and was reportedly shot on iPhone.

Also premiering out of competition is José Padilha’s true story thriller 7 Days In Entebbe, starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and Eddie Marsan.

New films from Lav Diaz and Alonso Ruizpalacios will play in competition.

Rupert Everett’s Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince and Becoming Astrid by Pernille Fischer Christensen have been added to the Berlinale Special Gala section.

Read more: Robert Pattinson, Christian Petzold movies join Berlin Film Festival Competition

23 of the 24 titles...

It doesn’t rank up there with his longest feature, but Filipino director Lav Diaz‘s latest film, A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, is likely the most epic experience one can have at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival this year. Clocking in at 485 minutes (just over 8 hours), if all goes according to plan, we’ll have a review later next week, and today brings our first look.

For his latest feature, which is competing for the Golden Bear at the festival, Diaz examines the history of his native land through the story of the father of the Philippine Revolution, Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro. Starring Piolo Pascual, John Lloyd Cruz, Hazel Orencio, Alessandra De Rossi, and Joel Saracho, check out the synopsis, poser, stills, and poster below, and check back for our review.

Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro is considered to be one of the most influential proponents in the...

As if new films from the Coens and Jeff Nichols weren’t enough, the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has further expanded their line-up, adding some of our most-anticipated films of the year. Mia Hansen-Løve, following up her incredible, sadly overlooked drama Eden, will premiere the Isabelle Huppert-led Things to Come, while Thomas Vinterberg, Lav Diaz, André Téchiné, and many more will stop by with their new features. Check out the new additions below, followed by some previously announced films, notably John Michael McDonagh‘s War on Everyone.

Competition

Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)

Portugal

By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)

With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova

World premiere

Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)

Iran

By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)

With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol

International premiere

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary

Italy / France

By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...

New titles from Thomas Vinterberg, Mia Hansen-Løve, Danis Tanovic, Lav Diaz and Gianfranco Rosi among line-up.Scroll down for full list

Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has added nine titles to its Competition line-up, bringing the current total to 14 (the full Competition programme will be announced soon, according to the fest).

The new additions include The Commune, marking the first time Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt, Far From The Madding Crowd) has been in Competition at Berlin since Submarino in 2010. The film centres on a Danish commune in the 1970s and will be released in Denmark this weekend (Jan 14).

French director Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden) has been selected with her drama Things to Come, starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman embarking on a new life after her husband leaves her for another woman. The film will world premiere at Berlin.

Another world premiere will be documentary Fire at Sea, capturing life on...

This November, over 100 films will be screening at AFI Fest 2014 in Los Angeles and more than a few of those flicks will be of the horror variety. Attendees hungry for vampire humor, coming-of-age terror, and frights that hit close to home should be happy to hear that What We Do in the Shadows, It Follows, and Goodnight Mommy are a few of the horror movies screening at the festival.

AFI Fest 2014 runs from November 6th – 13th in Los Angeles. To learn more, visit:

http://www.afi.com/afifest/default.aspx

These are a handful of the horror films playing at the festival:

“Goodnight Mommy (Ich Seh Ich Seh) – Twin boys fear that their mother, whose face is masked with bandages after plastic surgery, has been subsumed by an evil being. Written and directed by aunt-nephew filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Cast: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lucas Schwarz. Austria.

From...