Movies starring Marian Rivera, Mylene Dizon lead Cinemalaya 2024 lineup

MANILA, Philippines — The Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival is marking its 20th edition this 2024 with a strong lineup of entries touching on various stories about Filipinos.

With the Cultural Center of the Philippines main building, Cinemalaya's longtime home, still under renovation, this year's film festival will plant its home base in Ayala Malls Manila Bay in Parañaque as opposed to last year's main venue, the Philippine International Convention Center.

Opening the festival is Sheron Dayoc's "The Gospel of the Beast," nominated for Best Picture in two different international film festivals, winning in Bali. The closing film, meanwhile, will be a restored version of Lino Brocka's "Bona," which recently ran at the Cannes Film Festival.

A total of 200 titles will be running at Cinemalaya 2024, including 10 feature films, 10 short films, and 10 Philippine premieres out of the main competition.

Among the latter are Joel Lamangan's "Lola Magdalena" and "Ghostlight" starring Dolly de Leon, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

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Probably the most anticipated of the feature-length films is Kip Oebanda's "Balota" — which he called the "unfortunate sequel" to his Cinemalaya 2018 entry "Liway" — starring Marian Rivera, Donna Cariaga, and Sassa Gurl.

Making a grand return to the festival is Lawrence Fajardo with "The Hearing" starring Mylene Dizon, Ruby Ruiz, and Ina Feleo.

Real-life couple Jane Oineza and RK Bagatsing star in Jonathan Jurilla's alternative romantic-comedy "Love Child" about parents of an autistic child.

Jaime Pecana II makes his feature directorial debut in the Japan-set "Kono Basho" starring Gabby Padilla and Arisa Nakano, the latter recently starring in the Oscar-nominated film "Perfect Days."

Also making their feature directorial debut are Richard Salvadico and Arlie Sumagaysay in "Tumandok," which features no professional actors, and all proceeds from its screenings will go to the Ati community who are the central figures of the film.

The sole documentary in competition is "Alipato at Muog" by JL Burgos who began