QCinema is bringing the best of global filmmaking to local screens at the QCinema International Film Festival. You bet we’re already in line for Poor Things.
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Have you ever been hyped for a film but realized it wouldn’t be screened in your area? Or that you missed its limited run? Or that there’s no way to watch it without having to fly overseas? Or, you’re curious as to why a certain film won a prestigious film award but you can’t cast your own judgment because you can’t watch it anywhere? Don’t fret, because maybe you’ll be able to see that film in all its glory at the QCinema International Film Festival!
QCinema, in a display of establishing the Philippines and Quezon City as an epicenter of cinema and culture, is coming into its 11th year with plenty of diversity. Its celebration of international and local filmmaking culminates in a ten-day event of screenings, exhibitions, competitions, awards, panels, workshops, and more from November 17 to 26, 2023.
Whether you’re a cinephile or a casual enjoyer of the arts, you’re sure to find something at the festival. Award-winning, indie, vintage, new, dramatic, uplifting—the wide selection is diverse and abundant. Films will be screened at cinemas in Robinsons Magnolia, UP Town Center, Gateway Cineplex, Shangri-La Plaza, and Power Plant Mall. You can check the entire screening schedule here.
FOR THE LOVE OF FILMS
The film festival curated films from all over the world, from international award-winning features from Singapore, Japan, Hollywood and more, to local shorts, queer productions, and films vying for grants. And while QCinema’s lineups always eat, this year hits extra different. Its opening film is Golden Lion winner and Emma Stone-starrer Poor Things and its closing film is The Breaking Ice, Singapore’s entry to the 2024 Academy Awards.
Exhibitions at QCinema are divided into sections with a variety of selections: Screen International, New Horizons, Restored Classics, RainbowQC, Special Screenings, Before Midnight, and QCDox. Screen International features award-winners and works from renowned directors like Critical Zone by Ali Ahmadzadeh and All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh (starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal). Meanwhile, New Horizons highlights directorial debuts like Scrapper by Charlotte Regan.
If that’s not enough for you film buffs, Restored Classics will feature Wong Kar Wai films Chungking Express (1994) and Fallen Angels (1995) as well as Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971). RainbowQC spotlights diversity with queer films from the United States, Germany, France, Poland, and Sweden. Special Screenings will put works by Lav Diaz, Wei Shujun, Gaspar Noé, and more on the silver screens.
And for more, find surprising and spooky films in QCinema’s Before Midnight features, and some grounded, real-life stories in its QCDox lineup of documentaries.
CONTESTS GALORE
Besides screenings and exhibitions, the QCinema International Film Festival will also be hosting a slew of film competitions open to newcomers and established filmmakers to win grants and awards.
There’s the Asian Next Wave competition for the Pylon Award, featuring 10 directorial debuts from Asian filmmakers, including Cinemalaya Best Screenplay Winner Gitling by Jopy Arnaldi. QCShorts feature films that received grants from QCinema like A Catholic School Girl by Myra Angeline Soriaso and Abutan Man Tayo ng Houselights by Apa Agbayani among others. Lastly, its new QCSEA lineup features 10 short films from Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Poster from Cinemalaya
There will also be programs like the inaugural, forward-thinking QCinema Young Film Critics Lab, which intends to gather emerging Filipino film critics as well as experts in order to “expand and deepen” the discourse on cinema and culture and highlight the intrinsic, important connection between film and criticism.
With all these exhibitions, competitions, and of course, films, you’ll definitely find something that meets your fancy, buff up your Letterboxd catalog, and foster your love for cinema.
Posters from IMDb.
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