An Actor’s Dream

As it returns for its 22nd year, Cinemalaya continues to be a space that hones and honors craft.

Words Pao F. Vergara
Art by Nicole Vinco
August 7, 2026

Artists and creatives, in memoirs, biographies, interviews, and essays, have historically described the creative impulse not just as something sacred or inspiring, but also terrifying and consuming, owing to the distress from repressing it.

Psychology pioneer Carl Jung identified “the unlived life,” describing the anguish quietly gnawing us down after years of avoiding risks tied to self-expression in favor of more socially-palatable choices.

In popular parlance, the “unlived life” might be called the “mid-life crisis.”

As such, it’s quite telling when a commercially successful household name and veteran actress, using a mononym like Pokwang, decides to use her real, full name in the billing for an independent film.

Such is the ground laid by the Philippine Independent Film Festival, or more popularly known as Cinemalaya, since its debut in 2005.

“An actor’s dream”

“When you say Cinemalaya, you can trust that the films are an actor’s dream to work on,” says Chai Fonacier, another veteran actress participating in said festival’s 2026 run via the full-length feature Tirik, directed by May-i Guia Padilla.

Fonacier also starred in Cinemalaya 2017 in the feature film Respeto, which juxtaposed rap communities with state violence. She also participates in other Philippine independent film festivals.

Recalling the experiences of fellow commercial actors who also bill in Cinemalaya and the indie circuit, Fonacier shares how her colleagues get to inhibit “really interesting characters that challenge us as actors, nothing they’ve ever played before.”

Tirik is one of 10 films that started out as a concept paper among hundreds of entries, which eventually won funding and connections to production staff after a film camp held by the Cinemalaya Foundation in mid- to late 2025.

“That’s the thing I’m really looking forward to,” smiles Fonacier, “the thematic diversity of the selection” where the actors get to essay beyond typecasted roles.

While the mechanics have adjusted since its inception in 2005, Cinemalaya continues to act as a space to champion new, often younger voices in screenwriting and directing, aiming to tell stories from often-marginalized perspectives, all while giving experienced actors an avenue to expand their repertoire.

From script to shoot

Like Fonacier, Bernardine de Belen is on her second Cinemalaya run in 2026. But while Fonacier worked in front of the camera in both instances, de Belen worked behind the scenes, first as a co-writer and then as a production assistant and script consultant, in writer-director JL Burgos’ 2024 entry Alipato at Muog, and his current entry, Ganggang.

*Co-writer and production assistant Bernardine de Belen*

Despite a distribution deal with a major broadcast network following the 2024 festival, Alipato at Muog, a documentary about a disappeared activist, was initially given an X rating by the national movie review board for “undermin[ing] the faith and confidence of the people in their government.”

The rating was eventually lowered to R-16 after appeals.

Ganggang, meanwhile, is a work of fiction, revolving around three boys in a rural village and their love for catching spiders and pitting them against each other.

Meanwhile, the adults around them clash based on beliefs and political affiliations, and their games begin to parallel the truths of life so far kept from them.

De Belen shares that the script “has changed a lot since 2019, while still remaining true to the core story of three kids coming-of-age, realizing the different realities each of them live in, while still staying kids.”

How to make the story clearer and sharper, that was Burgos’ driving question, shares de Belen, as he developed the script since 2019 before submitting its concept paper in 2025. After all the approvals were made, Burgos then locked-in with the direction set.

Burgos’ movement from openness to decisiveness, recalls de Belen, who was on site during principal photography in Laguna, kept what is normally a grueling process straightforward.

“We’re all artists here”

Katrish Aristoki began her career as a commercial production designer in 2016.

While relatively unknown then, and not a common aspiration of young creative workers, it was enough to sustain her over a decade, such that she eventually became an online influencer whose content revolves around the art and process of production design, which today receives a lot of feedback.

Being tapped to design the set for 2026 Cinemalaya finalist Mag-iina, a gothic drama about a soul’s lingering on earth 40 days after death, allowed Aristoki to go beyond the “very filtered” sets she makes for commercial clients where “you turn off your personal sensibilities.”

“I was essentially a curator!” she gushes, as the set involved a lot of art work, given that one character was a national artist. “We got to explore genres, without filters,” she smiles, recalling how “we printed so much stained glass for the set.”

But the festival, through its mentorship camp, also gave Aristoki an opportunity to explore acting, as she was also part of Ganggang’s main cast.

“The thing with Cinemalaya is,” reflects Aristoki, “we’re all artists here. Whether you’re behind the camera or in front of it, you’re crafting.”

Echoing de Belen’s recollection on the power of decisive shooting, Aristoki shares that filming Ganggang—with or without child actors on set—avoided overtime practices prevalent in past decades.

To really get into the headspace required by her role, Aristoki frequently read the book Some People Need Killing, an account of the Philippines’ drug war by journalist Patricia Evangelista.

Speaking on themes often avoided by commercial cinema but allowed space in Cinemalaya, Fonacier asserts that “anger in society has been demonized. It wasn’t taught to us, how to deal with anger. But it can serve as your moral compass. What makes you angry? If injustice makes you angry, you’re probably on the right path.”

Meanwhile, Aristoki’s role in Ganggang emphasized “a social issue you need to raise. How then will your work open the doors of empathy?”

When happens when “the unlived life,” the creative impulse, or even moral indignation, is given room to breathe?

The testimonies from the above creatives from in front of the camera, behind it, or on both sides, show what’s possible, not just for creatives, but for national discourse and memory, too.

At this point, I can’t help but recall theologian Frederick Buechner’s notion of vocation as “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet,” elucidating it further with the tactile metaphor of finally answering a long-avoided phone call arriving in the middle of the night.

It seems the Cinemalaya festival continues as one such place where that meeting, that answered call, can happen.

Enroll in Creativity