News

This year’s Mmff was another success for Zig Dulay, who after 2023 and Firefly, also grabbed the Best Movie award this year, with “Green Bones“, a prison drama film starring Dennis Trillo, who also won the award for Best Actor. “Green Bones” actually went for a number of awards, additionally netting Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Child Performer. The event broke box office records too, with a 45% increase in opening weekend compared to previous edition.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Picture – ‘Green Bones’

2nd Best Picture: ‘The Kingdom‘

3rd Best Picture: ‘My Future You’

4th Best Picture: ‘Isang Himala‘

Best Director – Crisanto Aquino for ‘My Future You’ and Michael Tuviera for ‘The Kingdom’

Special Jury Prize – ‘Topakk‘ and ‘Isang Himala’

Best Actress – Judy Ann Santos, ‘Espantaho‘

Best Actor – Dennis Trillo, ‘Green Bones’

Best Supporting Actor – Ruru Madrid, ‘Green Bones’

Best Supporting Actress – Kakki Teodoro,...

It may not seem like the most obvious choice for a Christmas movie – a brutal action film with a protagonist traumatized by a failed mission in the jungle – but Triggered (Topakk) is one of the ten films selected for this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (Mmff) and is opening across the Philippines on December 25.

Starring Arjo Atayde and Julia Montes, the Tagalog-language film had its world premiere at Locarno film festival in 2023 and has been touring other festivals over the past year. Atayde plays a former special forces operative, now working as a security guard and struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (Ptsd), who tries to save a woman being pursued by corrupt police and a vicious drugs cartel.

“Filipino families tend to go out together over the holidays, but I guess this is one for the dads and their sons, while the mums and daughters go to watch a romcom,...

Last week, our friends at the Mayhem Film Festival in Nottingham, England, promised that we would find out what feature films they are bringing to this year's event. Today is the day and for three days and four nights the Mayhem crowd will fill the Broadway Nottingham and experience some of the best international genre cinema currently on the festival circuit.    Opening night has a South East Asian flavor, starting with Raging Grace, the story of an undocumented Filipina housekeeper and her daughter staying in a home of a family with dark secrets. The evening concludes with the Filipino explosive action flick, Topakk (Triggered), the story of a former soldier who protects a young woman from a corrupt police death squad.    Other titles...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Stars: Arjo Atayde, Julia Montes, Sid Lucero, Kokoy De Santos, Vin Abrenica, Gerard Acao, Rosh Barman, Kayley Carrigan, Enchong Dee | Written by Jim Flores, Will Fredo, Richard Somes | Directed by Richard Somes

A Special Forces operative suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is discharged from the army due to his extreme medical condition. Finding employment as a security guard, his world is turned upside down when he finds himself embroiled in a different kind of urban war after a young woman seeks protection from a corrupt police death squad working for one of the most brutal drug cartels. As the pair continues to fight for their lives, the man must confront his inner demons and earn the redemption he desperately craves…

Set in the Philippines and opening with the kind of jungle-based action not scene since the 80s heyday of filmmakers like Teddy Page and Cirio H. Santiago – filmmakers who capitalised...

Recently-established Philippines-based production and financing company, Fire and Ice, has deals to provide completion funding to two films being produced by prolific Singapore-based independent producer Potocol. Under a related agreement, Fire and Ice has also struck a multi-faceted first-look deal with Potocol.

The completion funding, which gives Fire and Ice a share of the film’s equity, will permit the completion of post-production of upcoming Potocol titles: “Pierce,” a sports drama by Nelicia Low, and “Last Shadow at First Light,” by Nicole Midori Woodford. Both films were recently showcased at Focus Asia’s Far East In Progress, part of the Far East Film Festival in Udine, and are expected to be completed before the end of the year.

The first-look agreement covers titles on Potocol’s slate including a project by Rafael Manuel, winner of a Silver Bear in Berlin in 2020 for his short film “Filipinana,” and another by cinematographer...

Action thriller, “Trigger” from writer-director Richard Somes has wrapped production and is beginning sales at the European Film Market.

“Trigger” (aka “Tokakk”) tells the story of a lonely security guard (portrayed by Arjo Atayde) previously discharged from the military due to his post-traumatic stress disorder. He finds himself embroiled in a different kind of war when a young woman (Julia Montes) seeks his protection against a corrupt police death squad. While the pair fight for their lives, the man must confront his inner demons to earn his redemption.

The film also stars Arjo Atayde (“Cattleya Killer”), Julia Montes (“Brothers”), Sid Lucero (“The End of History”) and Kokoy De Santos (“Game Boy”) and is produced by Wilfredo C. Manalang of Fusee (the company that co-produced Cannes Camera d’Or prize-winner “Plan 75”), Somes of Strawdog Studio Production, Ria Atayde and Sylvia Sanchez from Nathan Studios and Michaelangelo Masangkay, co-owner of Toronto-based...