Enter the dangerous and mysterious Quantum Realm, and push the limits of time and space in Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”, showing in Philippine cinemas nationwide in three weeks, starting on February 15. Grab your advanced tickets now and watch the newest chapter of the Ant-Man saga unfold.
The film is the third installment of the Ant-Man movie franchise and the first film of Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 5. After rescuing Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) in the previous movie, superheroes Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) continue their adventures as Ant-Man and The Wasp. Together with Janet, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Scott’s daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), they explore the Quantum Realm once more.
Upon entering the Realm, they encounter a bizarre new world with unique creatures and meet Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). With Kang giving Scott an offer that’s difficult to refuse, he and the rest of the group have to push their limits and have the strength to face all of the threats in the Quantum Realm, and maybe even Kang himself. Can they safely make it out of the Quantum Realm and stop Kang from reaching his goals?
Don’t miss this must-watch Marvel film this season and get ready for what the new phase of the MCU has in store. Check the available showtimes here and book your advanced tickets now!
Follow Marvel Studios Philippines on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for the latest news and promos. Join the conversations online using #AntManandTheWaspPH and #QuantumaniaPH.
Award-winning and critically acclaimed international films on the significantly distinct impact of culture in human relations will be screened for free every Wednesdays of February 2023.
The rich collection highlights Asian characters and how tradition shapes one’s perceptions and perspectives of romantic partnerships and connections.
Sepet (2004) by Malaysian director and writer Yasmin Ahmad explored how young love withstood social and racial pressures. Set in Ipoh, the capital city of the Malaysian city of Perak, the teen rom-com followed the story of a Chinese boy who sold unlicensed VCDs and a Malay schoolgirl who sought films featuring her favorite Japanese-Taiwanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro. It is on view on February 1.
Saving Face (2004), the feature-length debut of American filmmaker and screenwriter Alice Wu, shed light on a secret love that went against cultural expectations. Led by a Chinese-American surgeon, her unwed and pregnant mother and her dancer girlfriend, this rom-com drama was a study on traditional values, stereotypical representation and the fluidity of identity. It is scheduled on February 8.
Berbagi Suami (Love for Share) (2006), directed by Indonesian filmmaker Nia Dinata, narrated the intersecting accounts of a faithful Muslim gynecologist, a village girl and an ambitious waitress who found themselves in a polygamous life. The drama comedy presented the consequences faced by women who accepted the fate of becoming the other wife. It will be available on February 15.
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) by American film director, producer and screenwriter Jon M Chu tackled how family can complicate relations between significant others. Based on the international bestselling 2013 novel by American author Kevin Kwan, it introduced a Chinese-American economics professor and New Yorker who traveled to finally meet her boyfriend’s family. In her quest, she discovered that they are among the richest in Singapore. It is set on February 22.
Curated by the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB), the free and public online screenings will be conducted via Zoom every 12 noon on the scheduled dates. To register, email mcad@benilde.edu.ph. For more information, visit the official Facebook page of MCAD (https://www.facebook.com/MCADManila).
For the avid cinema audience, Ayala Malls Cinemas’ A-List is one of this year’s must-see that offers an interesting lineup of curated titles exclusively for its patrons. This January 25, the A-List Series brings Kendrick’s finest performance of her career, as hailed by critics, in “Alice, Darling” – a taut thriller about coercion and control, but most importantly, about the power of deeply-rooted female friendships that ultimately leads to resiliency and empowerment.
When the audience first encounters Alice (Kendrick), she is fully in denial about her fraught relationship with her boyfriend Simon (played by Charlie Carrick) and how damaging it is. “When we meet Alice, she doesn’t really know who she is all. It was actually a really bizarre character to play because the whole point is that she’s sort of lost herself, and that everything in her focus, all her energy, is going toward being kind of small and flexible and to manage her partner’s potential reactivity. And the sense that if she’s just a little bit better, if she is just perfect, everything will be okay. That mindset slowly creeps in, and – before she knows it – she doesn’t recognize herself. Only when she is with her close friends Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) does Alice have a little more room to breathe. It’s interesting because she’s resistant to that at first – if she fully recognizes and accepts herself and then returns to her partner, she will be in serious trouble – and her carefully constructed, self-sabotaging world will come apart,” Kendrick explains.
“Alice, Darling” is a unique, compelling film that has to be made according to Babe Nation Films’ Nolan and Tapscot, who’s committed to championing female-identifying voices and stories. “It was such a unique story we hadn’t seen anything like it. There have been projects that home in on abusive relationships, but nothing this subtle and focused on the friendship between women,” Nolan shares.
Watch “Alice, Darling” starting January 25 exclusively at cinemas of Ayala Malls Glorietta, Ayala Malls Greenbelt, Ayala Malls Circuit, Ayala Malls Bonifacio High Street, Ayala Malls Feliz, Ayala Malls U.P. Town Center, Ayala Malls Trinoma, Ayala Malls Harbor Point, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Ayala Malls Alabang Town Center, Ayala Malls Centrio, Ayala Malls Capitol Central, Ayala Malls The 30th, Ayala Malls Central Bloc and Ayala Malls Solenad.
Watch out for the other upcoming titles to be included in the A-LIST SERIES such as, EMPIRE OF LIGHT and many more.
Launching its new campaign tagline “Tell yourStories in our Islands,” the Film Development Council of thePhilippines’ FilmPhilippines Office officially opened the applications for the first cycle of the FilmPhilippines Incentives (FPI) program this 2023. The call is open to foreign production companies in business with a Filipino production company or producer on an ongoing project.
With the primary goal to promote the Philippines as a highly-viable filming destination, the FDCP FilmPhilippines Office offers location incentives to attract international productions to film in the country.
The Philippines also offers co-production funds to foreign producers who are looking to co-produce their respective projects with Filipino production companies and producers.
Interested filmmakers and production companies may apply to the following incentive programs:
● Film Location Incentive Program (FLIP): A selective rebate of up to PHP 10 million per project granted to Filipino production companies that are producing TV/VOD series, music videos, and feature-length or short films with a minimum Qualified Philippine Production Expenditure (QPPE) of PHP 50 million.
● International Co-production Fund (ICOF): A selective fund of up to 40% of Qualified Philippine Production Expenditure (QPPE) capped at PHP 10 million per project granted to Filipino production companies who are producing feature-length or short films with a minimum QPPE of PHP 8 million.
● ASEAN Co-production Fund (ACOF): A selective fund of PHP 2.5 million to PHP 7.5 million per project granted to Filipino production companies who are producing feature-length films. 50% of the applicant’s production budget must be spent on Qualified Philippine Production Expenditure (QPPE).
The first cycle of the FilmPhilippines Incentives (FPI) Program is open until March 17, 2023 which will be followed by a Selection Committee Deliberation.
Some of the most notable film grantees of the FPI include “Ella Arcangel: Awit ng Pangil at Kuko” by Melvin Malonzo, “Arnold is a Model Student” by Sorayos Prapapan, “In My Mother’s Skin” by Kenneth Dagatan, “The Gospel of the Beast” by Sheron Dayoc, and popular television series “Survivor.”
Through this initiative, the FDCP FilmPhilippines Office aims to provide funding to local and international production companies to foster collaboration between the Philippines and other foreign countries. The incentive program also opens up a lot of opportunities for Filipino talents and service providers to work on international co-productions.
Now in its fourth year, the FilmPhilippines Incentives Cycle 1 of 2023 comes with a new set of guidelines which interested applicants may download here. For inquiries, kindly send an email to filmphilippines@fdcp.ph.
The story finds Mike in Miami at loose ends and with empty pockets, having closed his furniture business. Taking bartending gigs, however, proves fortuitous when he meets a mysterious woman, Maxandra Mendoza, who, after a night of getting to know each other, presents Mike with an opportunity he can’t refuse—one that could change him, and his life, forever.
Soderbergh comments, “What we’ve done with these films, this one especially, is give audiences all the pure fun of watching these amazingly talented dancers perform, but also used dance as a sort of Trojan horse to sneak in other ideas.”
The director adds that, for this final round, the filmmakers upped the ante by giving Mike the option to really have it all…if only he can reach out and grab it. “What is desire, what does that mean? What do love and commitment really mean in our world? Wrapped up in all the dazzling choreography and exciting dance numbers, the movie tries to explore those real questions about how relationships are defined today.”
Tatum, who also serves as a producer, observes, “The first movie was about Mike realizing, ‘I need to figure out what I’m doing with my life.’ The second one put these guys on a pedestal and let them flesh out their characters, but it was still really about these men. Since then, women in films have become more open, more conversational about what they want, and we’d also created the live show. What we learned doing that made us want to make this third movie and to really redesign what Magic Mike is. We wanted to put the best dancers in the world in the movie, and have a strong female lead who is pivotal to the story and as important as Mike in the plot.”
Of course, no “Magic Mike” sequel would be complete without ramping up the dance factor. Soderbergh says that there was no question that for this “Last Dance,” the filmmakers knew they had to “blow the dancing up in a very big way.”
A Warner Bros. Pictures Presentation, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” slides into theaters across the Philippines beginning February 8.
Join the conversation online and use the hashtag #MagicMikesLastDance
Let the adventure begin. Watch the brand-new trailer for Paramount Pictures’ Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and see the film only in Philippine cinemas this March 29.
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.
Paramount Pictures Presents In Association with eOne A Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley Film.
Directed by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley, screenplay by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley and Michael Gilio. Story by Chris McKay & Michael Gilio, based on HASBRO’S DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.
The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, Daisy Head and Hugh Grant.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is distributed in the Philippines by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Connect with #DnDMovie and tag @paramountpicsph
Photo & Video Credit: “Paramount Pictures International”
Global video streaming service Prime Video announced today that it has acquired worldwide rights to In My Mother’s Skin, written and directed by Kenneth Dagatan (Ma). In My Mother’s Skin, a horror fairytale which will make its world premiere in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival’s Midnight Section, tells the story of how a young girl’s duty to protect her dying mother is complicated by her misplaced trust in a beguiling, flesh-eating fairy. The film stars Beauty Gonzalez, Felicity Kyle Napuli, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, James Mavie Estrella, and Angeli Bayani. In My Mother’s Skin is the only non-English language film in Sundance’s Midnight Section this year, and will launch on Prime Video in multiple countries by the end of 2023.
“In My Mother’s Skin” will launch on Prime Video by the end of 2023.
“Brad’s one of the few people today where you get some sense of what the old school movie star really might’ve been like,” says Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle (La La Land, First Man). “That sort of larger-than-life aura that a star of that time could exude seemingly effortlessly. That’s the thing with Brad, especially at this point in his career. You don’t see the work… it’s completely invisible and effortless. That’s part of what’s so magical about it.”
We first meet Jack Conrad (Pitt) when he arrives at the Wallach party with his soon-to-be ex-wife, Ina (Olivia Wilde). Jack evokes the likes of John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino, leading men of the silent movie era. When he makes his entrance at the party, Jack feels like the adult in the room, but it’s clear that he is ready to partake in the festivities if the right situation comes along.
“Jack is sort of the uber movie star,” says Chazelle. “He’s the highest grossing leading man in the world when we meet him. He’s one of those guys who has reached the apogee of stardom right at that moment, and the kind of hysterical love and admiration that he inspires, at a moment in time when the whole concept of movie stardom was still relatively new, is really hard for us today to fathom.”
In a throng of admirers, Jack knows just enough about everybody in the room to address them and make them feel special, even for a brief moment, without pausing for a beat on his way to the bar. Everyone wants a word with or a glance from the most famous man in the movies.
“Having him play a movie star of this era felt meta in the most beautiful way,” says Chazelle. “But it also gave us something to collaborate on together, because the story became a canvas that he could inform with his own experiences, so that you could see the humanity underneath — the vulnerability, the insecurity.”
To play a silent film star, Pitt also did his own research. “I went back and studied. I watched a lot of Gilbert, Fairbanks, and Valentino. There’s a real charm in those performances,” says Pitt. “Silent films didn’t have dialogue to rely on, they only had the occasional title card, so the performances have a style to them that’s different than what we have now.”
In cinemas across the Philippines starting February 1st, Babylon is distributed by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Connect with #BabylonMovie and tag @paramountpicsph
Photo & Video Credit: “Paramount Pictures International”
Tom Hanks is back on the big screen, headlining the heartwarming film A Man Called Otto. In this movie, Hanks plays a grumpy widower whose world is turned upside down when he meets the quick-witted pregnant woman Marisol. Check out the trailer for A Man Called Otto below:
Before A Man Called Otto hits theaters this week, we’ve rounded up a few facts about the movie that you might want to know. Check them out below:
1. It’s based on a book.
The upcoming Tom Hanks film is based on the #1 New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove by the Swedish author Fredrik Backman. The film will follow Otto, a grumpy old man who lost his purpose in life after his wife died. Ready to end it all, Otto is then interrupted by a lively young family who moves in next door, and with it is the pregnant woman Marisol who dares him to see life differently.
2. The book was first adapted into a Swedish film.
Before this Hollywood flick, A Man Called Ove was actually adapted into a Swedish film of the same name in 2015, directed by Hannes Holm and starring Rolf Lassgård. The first film also received two nominations during the 2017 Academy Awards.
“Obviously, I was very blessed because there was the novel there, and Fredrik Backman did a great job in the novel balancing it, and there was the Swedish version of the film, which also did a very good job with that,” director Marc Forster told Colliderin an interview.
“There was source material. But then, once we got into the editing, I did a lot of the ins and outs of the flashbacks, which often happens during the suicide attempts. There were often these moments where I had Tom play them, and then Truman played them, as well, Truman Hanks who plays the younger Otto.”
3. Tom Hanks gets to work with his son Truman in the film.
Tom’s 27-year-old son, Truman Hanks, is also a part of the film, starring as the younger version of Otto in the flashbacks. Tom told PEOPLE, that working with his son was “special because, you know, I changed his diapers. But you get past that right away because you gotta show up, and you gotta hit the marks, and you gotta do it on time, and you gotta be right there.”
Photo: A Man Called Otto trailer
4. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo was suggested by Tom Hanks to co-star in the film.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo who plays Marisol’s husband Tommy, was suggested by Tom Hanks to play the role after working with him in the 2020 movie Greyhound.
“For me, it’s very hard to do comedy, or at least for me, I feel like I’m not confident enough to do it. But then I heard that Tom was like, ‘No, Manuel. Let’s bring Manuel.’ And I’m like, if Tom says, I have to do it,” shared Garcia-Rulfo in an interview with Collider.
Photo: A Man Called Otto trailer
5. Director Forster on filming Tom’s cat co-star Smeagol.
Also starring alongside Hanks is the cat named Smeagol. According to director Forster, filming the feline star was not a walk in the park.
“I think the cat, Sméagol, was probably the toughest one. Sometimes Sméagol just left set and walked off,” Forster shared. “And then, I had to beg the producer for a green screen day because I don’t like CG animals and CG cats. So, then we kept shooting Sméagol on a green screen, and then to comp him into the picture. Ultimately, 90% of it is all Sméagol’s performance, so I was very happy with that. But that was much harder than the kids, or anything else.
Photo: A Man Called Otto trailer
— A Man Called Ottoopens in cinemas nationwide this Wednesday, January 25.
After five successful editions, Sine Kabataan is back for its sixth year! The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) is holding an open call for short film entries for Sine Kabataan Short Film Lab and Festival Submission of entries is from January 13 to February 10, 2023.
The Sine Kabataan Short Film Competition not only aims to provide a platform to young Filipino filmmakers but also elevate their creativity and storytelling skills that are reflective of how they perceive the issues they face today. The competition is open to filmmakers ages 18-30 years old who have produced at least one short film.
20 story concepts which can be live action, documentary, animation or experimental will be shortlisted from the pool of submissions. Those who make the cut will undergo exclusive film labs which will cover topics from development up to post-production. With the easing of COVID-19-related restrictions, the FDCP will be shifting its film labs to a hybrid on-site and digital platform to equip the filmmakers with technical knowledge and practical skills in production.
From the 20 shortlisted projects, 10 will be chosen as finalists by a Selection Committee after a Pitch Showcase and each of them will receive a production grant of PHP 100,000 to produce their story concepts.
The FDCP expands the running time requirement this year from five (5) minutes to seven (7) up to 20 minutes to grant the competing filmmakers an opportunity to better express themselves and to let them explore treatments that will further maximize the potential of their story concepts.
To check the full guidelines and mechanics, visit this link. For more updates on the short film competition, follow Sine Kabataan on Facebook.
