Cinemalaya Foundation

Four queer women in their 30s who are exes-turned-best-friends navigate adulthood, love, friendship, chosen families, and everything in between.

Boses (Voices) is the story of a musician named Ariel who offers violin lessons to a child of the slums. Through the violin, the abused child Onyok is able to get back his voice from a mute, desensitized existence. A violin teacher and his student, a mute 7-year old abused child in a shelter, develop a friendship stemming from their love of music. Ariel discovers the immense talent of Onyok hiding behind a veneer of silence and pain caused by an unhappy and cruel father. In the developing relationship of teacher and student, both characters reveal more of themselves that otherwise may have remained unspoken. They discover each other's strengths and failures through the violin lessons.

An assassin, a porn dubber and a transgender. Three souls. One explicit illusion. To find the ultimate joy in their empty lives. A safe haven, where passion and love mean humanity, ecstasy means enlightenment; and the soul is the ultimate arbiter of the truth.

Maxi, a boy on the cusp of his teens, is already comfortable with his homosexual feelings, with acceptance from his family. When Maxi is assaulted one evening, Victor, a police officer, comes to his aid. Maxi soon develops a crush on Victor, who shows a platonic affection for the young lad.

Sarah is a nurse at a Public Maternity Hospital. The hospital is abuzz with pregnant mothers of all shapes and sizes in different stages of labor. The hospital is short on staff on Christmas Day so Sarah is forced to put in a double shift. Sarah observes the women coming and going in her ward, noting who is a first-timer and who is a veteran. Meanwhile, the wards are overcrowded : two women and their babies sharing single beds while those in labor are spilling unto the hallways. Sarah takes these all in stride, her heart and mind laboring over her own personal pains.

A land-grabbing tycoon and a former sexy male actor are in a tight race for mayor in a small town. When violence erupts, Emmy, a teacher, runs into the wilderness with a ballot box, the last copy of the election result.

College senior Intoy (Edgar Allan Guzman) is unwittingly fallen into a friend-with-benefits situation with his mysterious classmate Jenny (Mercedes Cabral). Jenny has a reputation for being promiscuous, and Intoy plays aloof to hide the fact that he’s fallen in love with her. Slowly, Jenny opens up to him as well, revealing the vulnerable center to her seemingly impervious façade. But poor, confused Intoy isn’t really equipped to deal with the feelings involved.

Ordinary People is a family portrait of Jane, 16, and her boyfriend, Aries, who live on their own in the chaotic streets of Manila. Surviving as pickpockets, the lives of the young couple change when they suddenly become teenage parents. But not even a month into parenthood, their child is stolen from them. In order to retrieve the child, the young couple is forced to take desperate measures.

A socio-realist drama-comedy film, it follows a seemingly usual day in the life of Loida Malabanan as she embarks on yet another shooting day of a soap opera as an extra. As the shoot goes on, we get a glimpse of the truth in the ruling system of the production as well as the exploitation of the marginalized laborers like her.

Gruff retiree Rene rejects most human contact, but begins to soften once he comes to terms with his homosexuality.

Four Filipinos confront the slow erasure of memory and truth in a country devoured by disinformation.

An awkward 6-footer teen is forced to learn and play volleyball half-heartedly when the Catholic school she transferred to did not have a basketball team. Everything changes when she meets their star player.

The true story of a young mother who uses story-telling to protect her child from the reality of growing up in prison and the difficult life she endured.

A group of transgender women belonging to a gang kidnaps foreign men to fund their gender-affirming surgeries, not knowing that their quest to free themselves to be who they are may end with them in prison.

Ace, 23, and Miko, 17, desperately want to become famous actors but it seems the Universe has a different plan for their lives.

Instant Mommy follows the story of Bechayda, a two-months-pregnant wardrobe assistant for TV commercial production. In the fear of losing her Japanese lover and her dreams of a better life, she embarks on a plan that will get herself out of her predicament. Or so she thinks.

A pessimistic uninspired middle-aged artist finds spark with a millennial photographer who leads her on a path of creative and sexual reawakening.

A driver is sent on a simple errand: to pick up a designer t-shirt and a tin of viagra for his boss, who is shacked up in a hotel with his lover. Simple as it sounds, the road trip crisscrosses the chasms of time, class, and character.

A loving but impoverished grandmother of an autistic child tragicomically loses everything and turns into someone society reckons her to be.

Kasal is a slice of life drama of a gay couple whose resolve to stay together is challenged as they attend a wedding. It also is an examination on how a gay couple navigates through the different institutions in Philippine society.