A Guide to the Filipino Films in the 2026 QCinema International Film Festival

This year’s local contributions to the lineup include international film festival favorites and restored classics.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you look at QCinema International Film Festival’s lineup. This year, the 14th edition brings 81 feature films to the Philippines, including features and shorts from around the world.

Among the highly anticipated films are Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord and Nathan Fielder’s and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything. Filipino films are also generating buzz, with the return of Patay na si Hesus to the festival and the Philippine homecoming of Lav Diaz’s Makikiraan Po and Isabel Sandoval’s Moonglow.

Below, see the list of Filipino films you can watch at QCinema from November 13 to November 22, 2026.

Makikiraan Po

Directed by Lav Diaz, Makikiraan Po follows Padre Enciso, a cruel Spanish friar and encomendero who uses Catholicism and the forced construction of a grand marble and limestone church altar as tools to exert dominance over the indigenous population.

Ella Arcangel: Awit ng Pangil at Kuko

Based on Julius Villanueva’s graphic novel series Ella Arcangel, the animated film follows the titular character living in the impoverished slums of Manila. She succeeds her grandmother as a mambabarang (sorcerer/witch) tasked with protecting her community from supernatural entities and local folklore monsters. But as she grapples with her new responsibilities, a new monster surfaces and the government’s violent drug war rages around them.

The film makes its world premiere at the film festival and is also the only animated feature in the Asian Next Wave section of this year’s lineup. It also received the Philippines Co-production Grant at the 2023 QCinema Project Market.

The Remotes

Directed by John Torres, the story is set in an unnamed island town near Manila, following the story of Detective Mijares, a grieving cop still dealing with the loss of his wife. He is assigned to investigate a series of bizarre and fatal automobile accidents, with the only common link between the crashes being a voice-guided navigation app originally designed under a government program to “retrain” reckless drivers.

The film premiered in the Wavelengths section of the Toronto International Film Festival and will be making its Asian premiere in the QCSelects section of the festival.

Batang West Side

Lav Diaz’s Batang West Side also returns to the big screen at QCinema 2026. The film is set on a cold, harsh winter night in Jersey City, New Jersey, with a young Filipino immigrant teenager named Hanzel Harana shot dead on the sidewalk of West Side Avenue.

Jaguar

Directed by Lino Brocka, Jaguar tells the story of Poldo Miranda, a poor security guard from the Tondo slums who works hard to support his impoverished family. He gains favor with his wealthy employer’s spoiled son, Sonny Gaston, after defending him during a violent fight.

Sister Stella L.

Sister Stella L. is a nun and guidance counselor who works closely with the marginalized, including abused women and runaways. Initially nonpartisan and focused strictly on conventional church duties, her life changes when a strike erupts at a local cooking oil factory.

Patay na si Hesus

A film by Victor Villanueva, the story follows Iyay, who learns that her estranged ex-husband, Hesus, has passed away in Dumaguete. Deciding she must attend the wake, she rounds up her reluctant and quirky children in an overloaded minivan for a chaotic trip from Cebu City to Dumaguete.

The film is a recipient of the QCinema production grant in 2016, and won the festival’s Audience Choice and Gender Sensitivity Awards. This year, the title returns under the Rediscovery section and celebrates its 10th anniversary.

11

Directed by Bebe Go, 11 is an autobiographical and improvisational feature that centers on a filmmaker who, in the midst of a pandemic that has halted the production of her most recent film, withdraws to La Union, forcing her to face her personal insecurities and creative fears.

The film made its world premiere at the 2026 Slam Dance Film Festival, under the Breakout Features section. At QCinema, the film screens under the QC Selects section.

I Grew an Inch When My Father Died

A feature directorial debut by P.R. Monecillo Patindol, the film follows two brothers, Ge and Kenken, whose lives are changed when their physically abusive, alcoholic father is murdered by a local neighbor.

The film makes its QCinema debut this year, after winning the NETPAC Award at the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Moonglow

Isabel Sandoval’s Moonglow is a neo-noir romantic thriller set in 1979, during Ferdinand Marcos’s martial law dictatorship. It follows Dahlia, a jaded police detective and trusted lieutenant to corrupt police chief Bernal. Disillusioned with the political elite and the origins of their wealth, Dahlia orchestrates a heist and ends up leading the investigation into her own crime.

After its world premiere in the Big Screen Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the film is making its Philippine homecoming at QCinema 2026.

To the Moon and Back

Directed by Elisa Gómez Alvarez, the documentary follows Cebuano scientist Pauline Basubas and Moroccan scientist Ilyasse in their early 20s. The pair are training at the Asclepios analog space mission hub at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, sharing the ambitious dream of escaping to the moon to fix or address the mounting problems of Earth.

Bomba Bernal

Directed by Khavn De La Cruz, the experimental documentary essay examines the history and cultural impact of the “bomba” genre through the critical writings of late National Artist Ishmael Bernal.

The 14th QCinema International Film Festival runs from November 13 to 22, 2026, with screenings at Gateway Cineplex 18, Robinsons Movieworld Galleria, Ayala Malls TriNoma, Fisher Box Office, and SM Cinema at SM City Fairview. Tickets are available at a discounted price of PHP 200.