Noticias

QCinema Project Market (Qpm) wrapped this weekend with an awards ceremony in which cash prizes and in-kind services worth $442,000 were handed out to projects from the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia.

The event is part of an expanding roster of industry programs at QCinema International Film Festival (November 8-17), one of the Philippines’ major film gatherings, hosted by Quezon City, which is the largest city within the vast metropolitan area of Metro Manila.

While the festival has been running for 12 years, Qpm (November 14-16) was holding its second edition this year, and was joined by the launch of Asian Next Wave Film Forum, a series of panel discussions, masterclasses and case studies of regional co-productions.

Qpm selected 20 projects, including 13 from the Philippines and seven from the rest of Southeast Asia. Winning projects included Myanmar-Indonesia co-production The Beer Girl In Yangon and upcoming works from Filipino filmmakers Martika Ramirez Escobar,...

Taiwan-Italy production outfit Volos Films has unveiled a diverse slate of features and documentaries at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (Tccf).

The feature film lineup includes “Polaris,” directed by Yamanaka Yoko, whose “Desert of Namibia” screened at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Set in a Tokyo bar, the film follows women from different backgrounds whose lives intersect. The project marks Volos’s first Japan co-production, with producers Chang Chuti, Chuma Kusuke, Mao Okuno and Stefano Centini attached.

Stefanos Tsai’s “Sunshower” centers on a Chinese-American man visiting his grandmother with dementia, who mistakes him for her first love. Jonathan Hsu produces, with Centini executive producing.

In the documentary section, Hong Kong director Frankie Sin presents “Nomads of the Island,” exploring his family’s fishing heritage and migration to Taiwan. Sin’s previous documentary “Another Home” won the Biff Mecenat Award at Busan 2024. Chiu Ping-Yu and Centini produce, with Peter Yam and Huang Hui-Chen are executive producing.

This Halloween, the OTTs are packed with malevolence and horror, as they all have a lot to offer. In this article, we have selected the top 10 films from Netflix, Prime Video, Shudder, Hulu, and HBO Max for you so that you don’t have to go through ratings and Metacritic reviews. These films have put their names as the top contenders in this genre in recent times. So, without further ado, let’s jump into the listicle, shall we?

Sister Death (2023)

Sister Death emerges as Netflix’s eerie Halloween offering, diverging from typical jumpscare horror. This visually arresting film navigates the realm of faith, intertwining sinister elements. However, its downfall lies in a disjointed narrative structure, akin to a fragile house of cards collapsing under scattered plot reveals.

Contrary to the acclaimed 2017 Spanish horror, Verónica, Sister Death struggles to meet elevated expectations as a prequel. Verónica stands as one of Netflix’s premier horror films,...

The Philippines’ Quezon City Film Commission and QCinema have revealed the lineup for the second edition of the QCinema Project Market (Qpm).

Twenty projects were selected from 63 submissions across the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The market aims to connect filmmakers with international partners and offers approximately $300,000 in grants and prizes.

Notable projects from last year’s Qpm have made significant progress. Rafael Manuel’s “Filipiniana” and Woo Ming Jin’s “Fox King” are in post-production, while Duong Dieu Linh’s “Don’t Cry Butterfly” is world premiering at Venice Critics’ Week.

Southeast Asian Projects from the 2024 selection include:

“The Beer Girl in Yangon” – Director: Sein Lyan Tun, Producer: Yulia Evina Bhara. Synopsis: A 17-year-old girl works in a Yangon beer station after her father’s political arrest, navigating love and hallucinations.

“Picturehouse” (Vietnam) – Director: Minh-Nghiem Nguyen-Vo, Producer: Johann Chapelan. Synopsis: In 1960s Vietnam, a family-run movie house becomes a sanctuary for a boy amid war.

Francis Galluppi’s crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County scooped both the top prize and audience award at the 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) tonight (July 12) in South Korea.

The US feature won the Best of Bucheon award, which comes with a cash prize of $15,400 (KW20m), as well as the audience award.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The debut feature of US writer/director Galluppi received its Asian premiere at Bifan following its world premiere at Fantastic Fest last September and won best feature in the Orbita section of Sitges.

Richard Brake, Jim Cummings,...

Supernatural thriller Molder from Filipino director Kenneth Dagatan has won the top prize at the 17th Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) project market, which runs alongside Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan).

The third title from Dagatan took home a cash prize of KRW15M for winning the Bucheon Award. The project also scooped up the Blood Window Award, which includes an expenses-paid invitation to the Blood Window project market at Ventana Sur in Argentina.

Philippines-Singapore-Italy co-production Molder is targeting a shoot date in the second half of 2025 and is looking to cast a major Italian actress.

Dagatan’s In My Mother’s Skin from 2023 premiered in the Midnight Section of the Sundance Film Festival as the only non-English language title in the section, and was later acquired by Amazon.

“Bifan has always had a place in my heart,” Dagatan told Deadline, about his special relationship with the festival.

Hank Tseng’s GrX Studio has appointed veteran producer Dennis Wu and screenwriter Ho Shing Ming in senior level roles as part of the Taiwanese studio’s drive to ramp up international collaboration and reinforce itself as a key film and TV producer in the region.

The Taipei-based company recently produced a second season of The Victims’ Game, which launched globally in June as the first Chinese-language drama series renewed by Netflix.

It will be followed by The Outlaw Doctor in the third quarter, a medical crime drama series set up as an international co-production. Starring Taiwanese actress Janine Chang...

Molder from Filipino director Kenneth Dagatan has scooped the top Bucheon Award at the 17th Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) project market, which runs alongside South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan).

As well as a cash prize of KRW15m, the upcoming horror thriller also won the Blood Window Award, which includes an expenses-paid invitation to the Blood Window project market at Ventana Sur in Argentina.

Scroll down for full list of winners

It marks the next feature from Dagatan, whose fantasy horror In My Mother’s Skin was the first ever Midnight section selection from Asia...

After three days of one-on-one meetings, supernatural horror film project “Molder” emerged as the biggest winner of the Naff Project Market, part of South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

The project by Kenneth Dagatan won the top Bucheon Award and an expenses-paid invitation to the Blood Window project market in Argentina.

Other notable winners included “Naga Swim Upstream,” the next project by Thailand’s Patiparn Boontarig, who recently enjoyed festival success with “Solids by the Seashore,” and “The Vampire of Sheung Shui,” to be directed by Shreyom Ghosh.

“Molder” features a Filipino immigrant living in Italy with his wife who suffers from dementia. When they meet a mysterious young Filipino man named Anthony, the woman disappears and the immigrant man’s life turns into a nightmare of physical decay, marked by necrotic skin patches and horrifying visions. He must race against time to find Anthony, whom he believes has cursed them,...

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) has unveiled the full line-up for its 28th edition, which is set to open with Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding and close with Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.

The festival, running July 4 to 14, will screen 225 films from 49 countries, including 67 world premieres. Titles will also receive online screenings through local Ott platform wavve.

Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart and marks the second feature of UK filmmaker Glass, whose Saint Maud won the Best Director Choice Feature award at Bifan in 2020. The film premiered at Sundance before playing Berlin earlier this year.

The world premiere of Takeshi Kushida’s Acting For Beginners has been set as the opening film of Japan’s Skip City International D-Cinema Festival (July 13-21), which has also revealed its international and Japanese competition titles.

It marks a return to the festival for Japanese filmmaker Kushida, whose psychological thriller My Mother’s Eyes premiered in competition at Skip City last year, having won the festival’s top award in 2020 with Woman Of The Photographs.

Kushida’s latest centres on a man who moves between dreams and reality against the backdrop of an abandoned factory where time seems to have stopped.

Upcoming projects from award-winning filmmakers Nelson Yeo, Patiparn Boontarig, Kenneth Dagatan and producers of Cannes drama Viet And Nam are among the selection for this year’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) market.

Held during South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan), some 37 titles from 22 countries have been selected for the project market, which runs July 6-9 alongside Asia’s largest genre festival. One-to-one meetings will take place with producers, investors, and distributors.

Titles in the It Project selection include Vietnamese horror The Heirloom, set to be the feature directorial debut of Le Hoang from the producers of Viet And Nam,...

The 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is calling for mentees in the ‘Fantastic Film School' until midnight on Tuesday, April 30, 2024(GMT+9). Entries can be made through the Bifan online submission site (https://vp.eventival.com/bifan/2024). All aspiring filmmakers, including directors, writers, and producers, who are currently working as filmmakers or have participated in filmmaking are eligible to apply.

The finalists will be announced on the website and notified individually on Friday, May 31. Detailed information can be found on the website (https://www.bifan.kr) under “Submission”. For inquiries, contact the Industry Program Team via email (naff.ffs@bifan.kr).

The Fantastic Film School is a genre filmmaking training and networking program for emerging Asian filmmakers. Participants can learn directly from experts in various fields of the global film business, including ▲ Scenario Development ▲ Film Scene Analysis ▲ International Co-Production ▲ Alternative Film Distribution and Screening ▲ Forum on Current Issues in the Film Industry.

Taiwan’s government has suspended its Taiwan International Co-funding Program (Ticp) in a move that appears to signal a change in direction towards more mainstream projects.

The decision has prompted concern among Taiwan’s production community, as the fund was being accessed to set up a wide range of international co-production projects, many of which have secured slots at top international film festivals including Berlin, Venice and Cannes.

When contacted by Deadline, Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca), which manages the fund, offered the following statement:

“To enhance international joint funding and co-production opportunities and to meet the demands of international investments, Taicca has undertaken discussions to revise and optimize the investment initiatives based on the experience of Taiwan’s International Co-funding Program (Ticp). This strategic move aims to attract a broader spectrum of large-scale investment projects, fostering more collaborations between Taiwan and the global community.”

Launched in January 2021, Ticp provides...

Great horror never gets old. The genre was as alive as ever in 2023, with the year's buzziest titles ranging from the large-scale devastation of "Godzilla Minus One" (yeah, sci-fi monsters bring horror too!) to the gnarly indie frisson of "Talk to Me," from the franchise-galvanizing prowess of "Evil Dead Rise" to the surprising earnestness of "Saw X" (and the whatever-the-heck-that-was of "Infinity Pool"). However, many of the year's best horror offerings did not achieve the levels of buzz generated by the aforementioned flicks.

This list compiles 15 exercises in fear and dread from 2023 which were grossly underrated, in that they received mixed or poor responses from critics and/or audiences. We've honed in on the ones that failed to garner the amount of attention or acclaim that their efforts deserved. Some have a lot in common with each other, and some are wildly different, but all of them are worth watching if you're a horror enthusiast.

Kenneth Dagatan’s latest horror movie, In My Mother’s Skin, premiered at this year’s Sundance Festival and received quite the ovation for being one of those horror movies that just click. Starring Justin Curtis-Smith, Beauty Gonzalez, and Felicity Kyle Napuli, among others, this is a horror movie that might remind you of the 2006 horror Pan’s Labyrinth. Replete with folk horror imagery and themes of a destructive war, here’s a detailed review of the latest Filipino horror movie, In My Mother’s Skin.

Spoilers Ahead

What’s This Movie About?

With the Japanese occupation of the Philippines almost coming to an end towards the end of World War II, a secluded family living amidst the jungles has to suddenly deal with a horrible situation. Romualdo, the husband of Ligaya and father of two kids, is threatened by a Japanese man to hand over the gold that he’s suspected of having stashed at his home,...

Bradley Liew of Epicmedia Productions (Philippines), Stefano Centini of Volos Films (Taiwan/Italy) and Singapore’s Huang Junxiang have reunited to launch two genre projects at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Contents and Film Market.

The trio previously teamed on Sundance Midnight hit, “In My Mother’s Skin” by Kenneth Dagatan, which was recently ranked number six on Variety’s Best Horror Movies of 2023. The film was acquired by Amazon Studios and will stream on Prime Video from Oct. 12.

The producers are backing Dagatan’s “Molder,” a body-horror supernatural thriller set in a sleepy Italian town where an elderly Filipino immigrant struggling with signs of early onset dementia, grapples with the sudden disappearance of his wife and the mysterious young man who claims to have placed a curse upon them. The film aims to blend both Filipino folklore based supernatural horror with the experiences of the Filipino diaspora in Italy.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Central Europe’s biggest cinema fest and party, has a reputation for offering up a healthy mix of regional and international films, as well as a mix of serious and fun fare, including some more outlandish and challenging movies.

The festival’s 57th edition, running June 30-July 8 in the Czech spa town, is no different.

Here is THR‘s look at some of the more outlandish and bizarre-sounding films that it will offer up to cineasts and industry insiders from around the globe.

Sisu, Midnight Screenings section

Described as “a survivalist action film stripped down to the bone” on the Karlovy Vary festival website, Sisu features a tired unit of Nazis at the end of the war picking a fight with a lone man, portrayed by Jorma Tommila, in Finland. “Part Western and part ironic Finnish answer” to action flicks starring the likes of Sylvester Stallone,...

The 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) held a press conference today to unveil the complete lineup of programmes for its upcoming edition, featuring 42 films from 15 countries. The festival also announced the distinguished presence of acclaimed filmmaker Johnnie To as the Jury President of the competition section. In addition, MIFFest bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award on renowned actress Sylvia Chang for her exceptional contributions to the world of cinema. The event also revealed the top 10 finalists and nominations for the BMW Shorties 2023.

Over 300 record-breaking submissions were received for the 6th MIFFest

With over 300 record-breaking submissions received for the 6th MIFFest, the festival continues to attract talented filmmakers from around the world. The high number of submissions is a testament to MIFFest's growing prominence and its commitment to recognising outstanding talents in the film industry.

“This year, we had the pleasure of receiving and watching over 300 films. This is an impressive...

Exclusive: Quebec’s Fantasia International Film Festival will open its 27th edition with the North American premiere of Pascal Plante’s latest pic Red Rooms (Les chambres rouges).

Plante will bring the pic to his native Quebec following a Competition bow at Karlovy Vary in June. The film, Plante’s third, follows the high-profile case of serial killer Ludovic Chevalier, which has just gone to trial, and Kelly-Anne is obsessed. When reality blurs with her morbid fantasies, she goes down a dark path to seek the final piece of the case’s puzzle.

The Nicolas Cage-starrer Sympathy for the Devil will have its international premiere at Fantasia. Written by Luke Paradise, the pic follows “The Driver” (Joel Kinnaman), who finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse after being forced to drive a mysterious man, “The Passenger” (Cage). As their white-knuckle ride progresses, it becomes clear that...

Competition titles include Cannes Critics’ Week winner ‘Tiger Stripes’.

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) is set to open its 27th edition with Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix, and close with the world premiere of Takashi Shimizu’s Sana.

The festival will run June 29 - July 9 with its award ceremony on July 7, followed by the screening of Sana.

Best known for The Grudge, J-horror master Shimizu’s latest film follows the disappearance of an idol group’s members and an eccentric private detective’s investigation into the matter. Shimizu received the Screen International...

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...

Has the war between streaming and theatrical reached détente?

After years defined by no quarter battling over releases, exclusive windows and global rights for the most in-demand independent films — battles fought most fiercely in Cannes — theatrical distributors and online platforms have put down their arms and started to work together.

Martin Scorsese’s hotly-anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon, which premieres out of competition in Cannes on Saturday, is an AppleTV+ production that will roll out in cinemas via Paramount Pictures, a theatrical-streamer co-op Apple will repeat with Ridley Scott’s Napoleon epic, which Sony will bow in cinemas worldwide in November, ahead of its AppleTV+ streaming release. This follows on the successful theatrical bow of Amazon Studios’ sports biopic Air, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, which Warners released in most of the world, grossing a solid $90 million at the box office before it shifted to Amazon Prime.

“If...

While Southeast Asian films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival many times before, and even won the Palme d’Or, there’s an energy around the region this year that we haven’t felt on the Croisette at previous editions.

Tiger Stripes, a body horror from Malaysian filmmaker Amanda Nell Eu, about a young Muslim girl going through extreme puberty, premieres Wednesday in Critics Week, while Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, from Pham Thien An, a young director who is at the forefront of a new wave of Vietnamese filmmakers, has been selected for Directors’ Fortnight.

Singaporean director Anthony Chen – who won the Camera d’Or in 2013 for his debut Ilo Ilo – is back in Cannes with a mainland Chinese production The Breaking Ice, which is premiering in Un Certain Regard this weekend. He is also producing an ambitious slate of Southeast Asian and international films through his Singapore-based Giraffe Pictures.

Kenneth Dagatan's sophomore feature “In My Mother's Skin” is set in the Philippines during the last months of WWII, following the story of Tala, a young girl (Felicity Kyle Napuli) who strikes a deal with a flesh-eating fairy (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) in exchange for food for herself and her little brother Bayani (James Mavie Estrella), and a remedy for her mother Ligaya (Beauty Gonzalez), who fell sick with a mysterious illness. That this comes with a big price to pay, is no wonder.

“In My Mother's Skin” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

Dagatan leans on local legends about ghouls to build the plot, adding his specific touch to it with metaphors about the war and its impact on people's urge to survive and protect their closest ones. Written as the script for a short film in 2015 largely inspired by a self-canibalism story in Marina de Van's...

Midnight screenings are usually exciting affairs, and Filipino World War II-era fantasy-horror flick “In My Mother's Skin” was no exception. Kenneth Dagatan's sophomore feature kept late-night audiences awake during its world premiere at Sundance. In this movie, two children — the brave Tala (played by the charismatic Felicity Kyle Napuli) and her more timid younger brother, Bayani — find that their bourgeois family home at the brink of ruin. Their father has disappeared to barter with the Japanese; their mother has fallen ill; and, on top of all of this, once-trusted family friends knock at their door for gold. Out of desperation, Tala begs a mysterious wood fairy (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) for help. She receives a magical insect that certainly changes her mother's health — but not necessarily for the better.

Rich with folklore, period detail, and of course, gore, “In My Mother's Skin”‘s appeal has reached far and wide. In addition to its Sundance selection,...

Johnnie To, Watanabe Hirobumi and Jang Sun-woo set to attend.

The Far East Film Festival (Feff), held in the Italian town of Udine, has revealed the full line-up for its landmark 25th edition, which is set to include appearances from filmmakers Johnnie To, Watanabe Hirobumi and Jang Sun-woo.

Running April 21-29, the festival will open with a double bill: He Shuming’s Ajoomma, the first co-production between Singapore and South Korea; and black comedy Bad Education by Taiwan’s Giddens Ko. It will close with Zhang Yimou’s Chinese blockbuster Full River Red.

The festival will screen 78 Asian films from 14 countries,...

Italy’s Far East Film Festival unveiled a power-packed lineup Wednesday for its 25th anniversary edition. The largest cinema event in Europe specializing in popular moviemaking from Asia, Feff will open April 21 with an inspired double bill, He Shuming’s hit Korea-Singapore co-production Ajoomma followed by first-time Taiwanese director Kai Ko’s black comedy Bad Education. And on April 29, the curtain will come down on the festival with the Italy premiere of legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s latest blockbuster, Full River Red. Between those dates, the festival will screen 78 Asian films from 14 countries, including nine world premieres.

The organizers of Feff, founded in 1999 in the picturesque northern Italian city of Udine by festival pioneers Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, say the 2023 selection “aims to showcase the immense complexity of Asia more than ever before.” The lineup indeed presents a compelling snapshot of a wildly diverse content’s commercial cinema in flux.

Udine Far East Film Festival is back with a record line-up to celebrate its 25th edition. 78 films, 14 countries, 9 world premieres – Golden Mulberry for Lifetime Achievement to Baisho Chieko – On the red carpet also Johnnie To, Watanabe Hirobumi and Jang Sun-woo.

If there are 78 films (record number!) and they come from 14 countries, it should certainly be emphasized that the line-up includes 15 women directors and 12 newcomers. In brief, the 2023 selection aims to restore great complexity more than ever of Asia. A selection that combines the recent past with today, seamlessly, among different communities, different expectations and choices of life, languages and dialects, politics, religions, habits, inclinations, beliefs, myths and legends and, last but not least, different gender identities. A selection that tells in real time how the cinematography of East and Southeast Asia have re-emerged from the sad period of the pandemic, not all in the same way, and not all with the same results.

In My Mother’s Skin follows the story of a rich Filipino in 1945 who fears the nearby Japanese soldiers and what they might do to get the family’s riches. While the father, Aldo, leaves the family behind to search for help, the mother becomes deadly sick. In search of help, the youngest daughter, Tala, decides to trust the flesh-eating fairy (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) who wishes to eat the whole family.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview founder Erik Meers at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Curtis-Smith sat down to discuss what drew her to the story.

“First of all, I definitely love horror films,” Curtis-Smith began. “I have made a few in the past and I’ve always been excited, like seeing how doing it on set and how it translates to the bigger screen especially when the audience finally watches it complete with the sound effects and...

Singapore-based film production outfit Potocol, whose “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” by Jow Zhi Wei bowed at the Berlin Film Festival’s Generation 14plus competition, has revealed a diverse Asian slate.

Potocol’s recent triumphs include Bangladeshi filmmaker Abdullah Mohammad Saad’s Cannes selection “Rehana Maryam Noor” and Indonesian director Makbul Mubarak’s Venice winner “Autobiography.” The company, led by Jeremy Chua who is currently at the Berlinale, has a growing reputation for championing the rise of young filmmakers from across Asia.

Potocol has four films in post-production and several more in development. Nicole Midori Woodford’s debut feature “Last Shadow at First Light” is a supernatural road trip drama that follows a Singaporean teenager tracing the footsteps of her missing mother in Japan and explores the ripple effects of a traumatic event subconsciously buried within the family unit.

A winner of several project development and market prizes at Seafic,...

The 400-year-old spectre of imperialism, colonialism, and occupation hovers above Filipino filmmaker Kenneth Dagatan's (Ma) second, feature-length film, In My Mother’s Skin. Set during the waning days of World War II, with the Japanese army in permanent retreat due to a temporary American-Filipino alliance, In My Mother’s Skin excavates historical horrors both natural (wartime atrocities committed by the Japanese) and supernatural ones (the centuries-old conflict between non-Christian and Christian faiths) to unforgettable, gripping, mesmerizing effect. In My Mother’s Skin centers on a once-wealthy Filipino family. The war and occupation of the Philippines have taken a toll on the family’s finances. While the family still lives in a spacious, opulent mansion away located in a sparsely populated area, the war isn’t far...

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

Gory, glittery and irresistibly bleak, In My Mother’s Skin represents a stylish, ripe contribution to the folk-horror canon. Not unlike his acclaimed debut, Ma (2018), Manila-based writer-director Kenneth Dagatan’s second feature revolves around a young person who makes a bargain with a malevolent insectoid forest spirit to help her family — with disastrous consequences.

This time round, Dagatan and his team have added a period frame by setting the story on a rural estate in the Philippines during the final days of World War II, just before the defeat of the occupying Japanese forces. Inevitably, that fascism subtext coupled with the creepy-ancient-being stuff strongly brings Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth to mind, at least to a Western viewer’s eyes. But if you’re going to steal, steal from the best. And there’s plenty that’s fresh, frisky and original here. It’s no surprise the global rights were...

Once you’ve seen enough horror films, it takes a lot to get under your skin. They can fall into familiar patterns and, even when competently made, become doomed by how derivative they are. Yet, even after taking in all the bodily fluids of Infinity Pool or the fleshy fun of Birth/Rebirth, it is joyous that another festival film like In My Mother’s Skin can pull you into its own dark world. A vibrant vision of historical and mythological horror from writer-director Kenneth Dagatan, it weaves all of these elements together in a way that is uniquely unsettling as you take in all of its depraved details. While initially reminiscent of early Guillermo del Toro, with The Devil’s Backbone feeling like a key reference point, it dives headfirst into a series of gruesome encounters that rip right through you to leave a bloody impression all its own.

The opening scene of Kenneth Dagatan’s sophomore feature, “In My Mother’s Skin,” promises the audience each of the horror genre’s grisliest thrills: The squelching sounds of oozing blood, the sight of flesh-ripping carnage in progress as well as in past tense, a carnivorous monster with a death rattle that’d make Sadako Yamamura croak with pride and a rangy tongue that’d stir Gene Simmons’ admiration. Dagatan keeps his promises.

Continue reading ‘In My Mother’s Skin’ Review: Kenneth Dagatan’s WWII Fairy Tale Features A Wicked Morality Not For The Faint Of Heart [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Squelching sounds radiate over a dark screen as we fade in on a humanoid creature chowing down on a victim’s throat. After pulling away and exposing an inhumanly long tongue, the creature begins to gag, vomiting up a small black bird. So begins Kenneth Dagatan‘s In My Mother’s Skin, a horror fairy tale that will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth, but has a much more sinister side in store for audiences who are willing to sit through its more deliberately paced plot machinations.

Set in the Philippines at the end of World War II, In My Mother’s Skin follows the story of Tala (Felicity Kyle Napuli), a 14-year-old daughter of a textile merchant who lives in a war-worn colonial house with her sickly mother Ligaya (Beauty Gonzalez) and younger brother Bayani (James Mavie Estrella). Under suspicion of stealing Japanese gold, Tala’s...

The nightmarish fairy tale "In My Mother's Skin," playing in the Midnight section at this year's Sundance Film Festival, takes place in the final months of the Second World War. A Filipino family lives in a mansion in the isolated countryside. Their village is occupied by the Japanese, whose loosening grip on the region means they're getting more desperate for results. There are rampant rumors that family patriarch Aldo has stolen gold from the Japanese, so he leaves his family behind to attempt to clear his name. His wife and two children, along with their nanny, are left to fend for themselves, effectively imprisoned in their home as they wait for Aldo's return.

Things weren't always this way. The home, while desolate, seems like a place where countless happy memories were made. An enormous dinner table lies in the dining room that could easily sit more than twenty people, and...

Folklore and horror are often two sides of the same coin. Genre filmmakers the world over have either drawn from or created local myths to jangle the nerves of their audience, from “The Wicker Man” in Britain and “The Blair Witch Project” in America to “La Llorona” in Guatemala and “Kwaidan” in Japan. For the latest evidence, look no further than the Philippines and “In My Mother’s Skin” — already picked up by Amazon ahead of its Sundance Mdnight premiere. Writer-director Kenneth Dagatan’s second feature after 2018’s “Ma” (no relation to the Octavia Spencer picture) takes place in the waning months of World War II, as Japan’s occupation of the Philippines is nearing its (un)merciful end. Though that watershed conflict is mostly confined to the background, the film’s very first line of dialogue makes it clear that political and supernatural horrors shall intermingle: “Did you hear...

Antonio (Ronnie Lazaro), a Filipino comprador for the Japanese Imperial Army, harasses a well-to-do family for the whereabouts of gold bars. He suspects the patriarch, Aldo (Arnold Reyes), a “great merchant importer,” of stealing some from the kōgun (Imperial Army) and hiding them somewhere among their cavernous colonial home or surrounding property. Flanked by two armed Japanese soldiers, Antonio leaves the family with a threatening impression and suggests his patience will wear thinner upon subsequent visits. Left alone, Aldo’s wife Ligaya (Beauty Gonzales) asks her husband whether he took the gold. “I will never do anything to put the family […]

The post “We’re Making Cinema Now, a Universal Language”: Kenneth Dagatan on In My Mother’s Skin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Antonio (Ronnie Lazaro), a Filipino comprador for the Japanese Imperial Army, harasses a well-to-do family for the whereabouts of gold bars. He suspects the patriarch, Aldo (Arnold Reyes), a “great merchant importer,” of stealing some from the kōgun (Imperial Army) and hiding them somewhere among their cavernous colonial home or surrounding property. Flanked by two armed Japanese soldiers, Antonio leaves the family with a threatening impression and suggests his patience will wear thinner upon subsequent visits. Left alone, Aldo’s wife Ligaya (Beauty Gonzales) asks her husband whether he took the gold. “I will never do anything to put the family […]

The post “We’re Making Cinema Now, a Universal Language”: Kenneth Dagatan on In My Mother’s Skin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The first big pickup out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Deadline reports today that Amazon Prime Video has acquired In My Mother’s Skin, a buzzy Filipino horror movie.

Kenneth Dagatan directed the film, which premieres this Friday at Sundance.

Prime Video has acquired global rights.

Deadline notes, “A Q4 drop date in several countries is currently scheduled.”

“Set in 1945 Philippines, at the tail end of World War II, the pic follows the story of Tala, a 14-year-old daughter of a Philippines textile merchant who lives in a war-worn colonial house with her sickly mother Ligaya and younger brother Bayani. When Tala’s father mysteriously leaves once more to barter for his family’s freedom with the Japanese, his family finds themselves alone in their isolated forest mansion, awaiting his return.

“With Ligaya’s condition rapidly deteriorating, Tala seeks out a mysterious fairy who has promised to protect her.

Tagalog-language selection to debut on platform by end of 2023.

Prime Video has picked up worldwide rights to Filipino Sundance Midnight premiere In My Mother’s Skin ahead of Friday night’s world premiere.

Kenneth Dagatan wrote and directed the horror fairytale about a young girl whose duty to protect her dying mother is complicated by her misplaced trust in a bewitching, flesh-eating fairy.

Beauty Gonzalez, Felicity Kyle Napuli, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, James Mavie Estrella, and Angeli Bayani star in the Tagalog-language film – the only entry in this year’s Midnight selection not in the English language.

Prime Video will debut In...

In what reps the first acquisition of this year’s Sundance Film Festival by a streamer, Prime Video is taking global rights to Kenneth Dagatan’s Filipino horror movie In My Mother’s Skin which is premiering in the Midnight section on Friday, Jan. 20. A Q4 drop date in several countries is currently scheduled.

In My Mother’s Skin is the only non-English title playing in this year’s Midnight lineup.

Set in 1945 Philippines, at the tail end of World War II, the pic follows the story of Tala, a 14-year-old daughter of a Philippines textile merchant who lives in a war-worn colonial house with her sickly mother Ligaya and younger brother Bayani. When Tala’s father mysteriously leaves once more to barter for his family’s freedom with the Japanese, his family finds themselves alone in their isolated forest mansion, awaiting his return. With Ligaya’s condition rapidly deteriorating,...

It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years since I was last in Park City to enjoy the Sundance Film Festival in person, which is why this writer is beyond thrilled to be headed back to Utah next week to partake in their amazing lineup of films once again. Sundance 2023 officially kicks off on Thursday, January 19th, and will be running through Sunday, January 29th. And while we’re undoubtedly stoked for the fest’s slate of Midnight titles, there are also a handful of genre films playing in other categories that this writer is definitely going to check out during my time at Sundance as well.

In anticipation of our return to Park City next week, here’s a look at 12 different horror, sci-fi, and genre-adjacent films that are playing at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. As usual, Sundance serves as a fantastic kickoff for the festival season,...

Taking place January 19th–29th, the 2023 Sundance Film Festival will spotlight 99 feature films from around the globe, and we have a look at the full list of movies screening in the eclectic and eerie Midnight category, including the world premieres of Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool and Kenneth Dagatan's In My Mother’s Skin:

From the Press Release: From horror and comedy to works that defy genre classification, these films will keep you wide awake, even at the most arduous hour. Films that have premiered in this category in recent years include Fresh, Hereditary, Mandy, Relic, Assassination Nation, and The Babadook.

birth/rebirth / U.S.A. — A single mother and a childless morgue technician are bound together by their relationship to a little girl they have reanimated from the dead. Cast: Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, A.J. Lister, Breeda Wool. World Premiere. Fiction. Day One

In My Mother’s Skin...

It’s that time of the year again when the Sundance Film Festival shares all of its horror discoveries that we’ll be seeing in the next few years.

Today they announced the comprehensive slate of independent films selected from the fest that will take place January 19–29, 2023, in person in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort, along with a selection of films available online across the country January 24–29, 2023.

Bloody Disgusting combed through the entire program this afternoon and pulled out all of the genre films of note, with first-look images and information where available.

What are you most excited to see at Sundance next year?

Midnight: From horror and comedy to works that defy genre classification, these films will keep you wide awake, even at the most arduous hour. Films that have premiered in this category in recent years include Fresh, Hereditary, Mandy, Relic, Assassination Nation, and The Babadook.

Fresh off a standing ovation for auteur Lav Diaz’s “When the Waves Are Gone” at the Venice Film Festival, the Philippines’ Epicmedia Productions has revealed a global co-production slate.

Next up is Swiss co-production “Electric Child” by Simon Jacquemet (“The Innocent”), which was presented at the Venice Production Bridge last year. The story revolves around a couple whose child develops an unusual illness. While the mother and baby drift into their own world, the computer-science professor father develops a pact with an A.I. character on a virtual island to save his child. The project, which is starting production imminently, is supported by the Film Location Incentive Fund of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, the Zurich Film Foundation, Filmstiftung Nrw and TV channels Srf and Arte.

Truong Minh Quy (“The Tree House”) is in preproduction on “Viet and Nam,” which follows...

Kenneth Lim Dagatan’s horror thriller In My Mother’s Skin is set to be revealed as the first co-production between the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.

Scheduled to start filming in mid-June with actress and Instagram star Beauty Gonzalez, the project is set to be announced tomorrow (May 21) by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (Imda) and Film Development Council of the Philippines (Fdcp) at their joint pavilion in the Riviera’s International Village.

The story follows a girl who trusts a flesh-eating fairy to save her dying mother when they are left behind in an isolated mansion, near the...

Kenneth Lim Dagatan is an independent Filipino filmmaker and writer, best known for directing and writing his award-winning first short film, Sanctissima (2015); it was premiered at the 11th Cinemalaya Philippines Independent Film Festival where it won the audience choice award, as well as awards at other film festivals, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director. His feature film, “Ma” (2018), was well received by the critics locally during Cinema One Originals Film Festival where it launched, and this striking horror debut had its international premiere at Nyaff

On this occasion, we spoke with him about how he became interested in horror movies, we heard a number of interesting stories about his childhood, his previous works and how they shaped him as a director, and other topics.

What was the beginning stages of your interest in horror movies? What really started your love of these films?

Actually, I started watching horror...

Having just recently made the jump from shorts to feature films, upcoming Philippine genre director Kenneth Lim Dagatan continues to move in a positive direction in his homeland from his earlier slasher “Bloody Crayons.” Taking a more esoteric and spiritual route with his new genre film “Ma,” the film is now screening as part of the New York Asian Film Festival for its international premiere.

“Ma” is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

Living in the middle of the woods, young Samuel (Kyle Espiritu) discovers a strange cave in the middle of the forest that features a single tree growing deep inside. As he’s able to converse with the tree, he slowly grows to believeit is able to deliver on a promise about bringing a loved one back to life. When his mother Lina (Glydel Mercado) dies, he sees that as the perfect time to test out the...