Heralding new directors and their acclaimed new works, QCinema celebrates outstanding debut or second features in its special 10th edition line-up this November 17-26, 2022.
New Horizons, QCinema’s exhibition section which was first introduced in 2019, returns with a line-up of outstanding fresh auteurs from all over the world.
Saint Omer, Venice Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize winner, is French filmmaker Alice Diop’s debut feature film. The film follows Rama, a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story to write a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea, but things don’t go as expected.
From Germany comes two contrasting debuts with the comedy The Ordinaries and the offbeat fantasy film Piaffe.
Sophie Linnenbaum, awarded the New Talent Award in Munich, poses an amusing premise on what it’s like to be a supporting character in reel and real life in The Ordinaries.
Anne Oren’s inventive debut, Piaffe, won the Junior Jury International Award in Locarno. It delves on the protagonist’s new stint as a foley artist as a horsetail mysteriously grows out of her body.
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama, is set in the Bolivian highlands where an indigenous elderly couple struggles with the onslaught of a long drought as they ponder on their future.
Next Sohee, the sophomore feature of July Jung, was the closing film of Cannes Critics Week. Korean actress Kim Si-eun shines as a doomed high school student who starts training at a call center where a mysterious incident leads to a series of unfortunate events and an investigation ensues.
New filmmakers are equally represented in QCinema’s other sections. For its Midnight Series section, which is devoted to chills and thrills in late night screenings, comes Huesera.
Huesera is a supernatural body horror film about a pregnant woman who finds herself threatened by occult forces. Film is by Michelle Garza Cervera of Costa Rica, who won this year’s Best New Narrative Director in Tribeca.
To The North, QCinema 2022’s closing film, is by Romanian director Mihai Mincan. The film premiered at the Horizons competition in Venice. It tells about a religious sailor who discovers a stowaway onboard a transatlantic ship. Top Filipino character actor Soliman Cruz takes top billing in the true-to-life drama. Together with a cast of other Filipino thespians, Cruz conspires to help the latter and starts to be tormented by his crew, friends and even God.
Advance Screenings, a new festival section that offers a first-look at exciting coming attractions, features Nanny, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner. It centers on a fresh African immigrant who babysits for an upscale white couple and is confronted with a harsh truth that can shatter her American dream. Senegalese Nikyatu Jusu’s thriller is presented by Prime Video (PHL).
Screen International, QCinema’s prestige section of acclaimed titles, includes Close by Belgian director Lukas Dhont and I Have Electric Dreams from Costa Rica’s Valentina Maurel.
Dhont’s sophomore feature portrays how a tragic event disrupts the intense friendship between two young boys and brings one of them closer to the other’s mother. It is the Cannes Grand Prize winner this year.
Maurel’s I Have Electric Dreams scored awards for Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Director in Venice’s international competition. The film is Maurel’s second feature and is a sensitive coming-of-age story about a teen’s delicate relationship with her estranged father.
The venues for the 10-day festival includes Gateway Cineplex, Trinoma Cinemas, the new Cinema76 (in Tomas Morato), Rockwell Power Plant Cinema, and SM North EDSA.
Details about in10City, QCinema’s 10th anniversary presentation will be available at qcinema.ph and updates are posted at its social media accounts – www.facebook.com/QCinemaPH, twitter.com/QCinemaPH, and www.instagram.com/qcinemaph.
