Telling Stories That Matter at QCinema
The industry behind the Philippines’ premier film festival breaks new ground with its recent expansions to its platform
Words Donavil Angeles
Photos courtesy of QCinema Industry
November 04, 2025
The QCinema Industry, the official industry platform of the QCinema International Film Festival, has announced its latest additions in redefining the landscape of Philippine cinema, establishing the country’s status as a rising power in regional film development and collaboration.
This year’s QCinema Media Conference introduces a lineup of fresh programs and initiatives, including a groundbreaking film market, a push for gender equity in the creative industry, as well as a well-deserved spotlight and celebration of documentary filmmaking, held at the Noctos Music Bar.
Executive Director and Head of QCinema Industry Liza Diño elucidated at the event the importance of this much-needed progress: “We’re reimagining what an industry platform in Southeast Asia can be. QCinema Industry connects talent, institutions, and policy under one ecosystem—one that reflects our region’s strength, diversity, and shared creative voice.”
The programs laid out by the QCinema Industry will commence from November 17-23, 2025 across Quezon City.
A Stage for Southeast Asian Films
This year, the QCinema Industry proudly presents once more its QCinema Project Market, a platform created for filmmakers and producers to connect, gain funding, grants, and international partners, and provide exposure to film projects from all over Southeast Asia.
Today, QPM boasts a vast array of film projects from almost every SEA country except Brunei, signifying a remarkable breakthrough in QPM’s history.
The QPM, which will happen from November 20 to 22 at the Versailles Tent, Novotel Manila, features a slate of twelve Philippine projects: Amateur, Daddy Cool, Dear Wormwood, Jaguar, Jollywood, KOMIXXX, Luzonensis and Floresiensis, Ozzy and Onie, Sentinel, The Void is Immense in Idle Hours, There Is, There Isn’t (Meron, Wala), and What’s Left of Us.
Meanwhile, eight participating projects from Southeast Asia will also grace the platform: Ghost of the Currents (Thailand), Penumbra (Singapore), Ray of Light (Thailand), Romdoul, the Evening Fragrance (Cambodia), Strange Root (Singapore), The River Knows Our Names (Vietnam), The Willing (Rela) (Malaysia), and When the World Is Paused (Myanmar).
Local Creativity in a Global Platform
Alongside the QCinema’s recent achievements is their partnership with the revitalized Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), led by Director General Paolo Villaluna. This collaboration comes with further professionalizing the screen sector, with FAP serving as a co-presenter to many of the key and new programs of the QCinema Industry.
In addition to the previous new launches of the QCinema Industry 2025 is the first-ever debut of the QCinema Film Market (QCFM), an industry platform designed to connect the leading film companies of Quezon City to global partners.
The QCFM will bring together 15 exhibitors from Quezon City’s leading production, post-production, and distribution companies, giving these companies visibility and opportunity to interact with global networks.
Mirroring global industry platforms like the American Film Market and Busan Asian Film Market, this event will serve as a hub for creative collaboration and a space where filmmakers, producers, distributors, and service providers alike can build meaningful partnerships.
Set to take place on November 18 to19, at the Monet Ballroom, Novotel Manila Araneta City, this two-day market, which will run from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, will be open to QCinema Industry badge holders and registered day-pass guests.
HER CITY
For QCinema Industry’s pivotal event, the Creative Industries Day, which focuses on bringing together key voices from different creative sectors for collaborations, workshops, mixers and roundtables, as well as advancing the industry through cutting-edge policies, 2025 brings in women at the forefront.
This year’s theme, ‘HER CITY: Women Shaping Sustainable Film Cities,’ will be co-presented by the French Embassy and Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), and will begin on November 19, at the Monet Ballroom 3, Novotel Manila.
The day’s main highlights comprise of a panel on “Gender Parity in Cinema: Lessons from France, Visions for Asia” and a first-ever Southeast Asian Actresses Roundtable with stars like Iza Calzado (Philippines), Claresta Taufan (Indonesia), Qymira (Malaysia), and other top actresses from Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore, leading the discussion.
“HER CITY is our commitment to amplifying women’s voices across every part of the creative chain—from policy and production to performance,” Diño noted. “For an entire day, it’s just all women who will be participating in these roundtable and panel sessions.”
Asian Next Wave: Future of Asian Cinema
QCinema’s annual event, the Asian Next Wave Film Forum 2025, will dive into sustainability, innovation, and solidarity under the theme “Beyond the Spotlight: Building Skills, Craft, and Ecosystems for a Future-Ready Southeast Asian Cinema,” providing regional creatives with the tools, connections, and knowledge in establishing a resilient creative industry.
The event will honor the unseen heroes behind films beyond directors and actors: producers, designers, editors, assistant directors, line producers, and sound artists, who are living proof of how cinema is built together by a collective dream.
The program will be set in motion from November 22 to 23, at the Guillem, Ibis Styles Manila, under Manet Dayrit, the President of the QCinema Film Foundation, and co-presented by FAP.
Dokyu Day
In partnership with Daang Dokyu and FAP, Dokyu Day, another major inclusion to the key programs of QCinema, is set to celebrate nonfiction as a driving force for social change.
Featuring talents like Atom Araullo, Jeff Canoy, Thara Brown, Monster Jimenez, and Marlon Rivera, the two-day documentary immersion will center around the power of documentary films in sparking social impact, including screenings, advocacy discussions, as well as impact production discussions, and an Impact Lab led by Hollie Fifer (Doc Society).
Kara Alikpala, who is leading the initiative, believes in honoring documentaries as the conscience of cinema: “Through Dokyu Days, we’re creating space for stories that not only inform but inspire change.”
Dokyu Day will embark on a journey through appreciating the existence of documentaries on November 18, at the Monet Ballroom 3, Novotel Manila.
A Creative Vision
In the recently concluded Media Conference, the Q&A session involved Diño sharing QCinema’s interest in involving not just Southeast Asian filmmakers, but also media outlets to amplify local visibility.
Lejano also imparted to the viewers the QCinema's plan for a Rainbow QC Pride Festival every June, an event that newly started this year, marking yet another milestone in QCinema’s history.
With QCinema’s unfolding of their bold lineup, placing six programs in the spotlight, the QCinema Industry is furthering their cause into championing creativity and innovation in Southeast Asian Cinema.
Corresponding to their goal of showcasing bold and diverse stories that are courageous and proudly Southeast Asian, QCinema is not just a film festival, but an ongoing, diverse platform with the objective of transforming Quezon City into a well-deserved home for SEA films, and a globally competitive film city.
“Every film starts with a single vision, but it takes a community to bring it to life,” Festival Director Ed Lejano said. “QCinema continues to be that space where creativity thrives, diversity is celebrated, and filmmakers are empowered to tell stories that matter.”
