In honor of the late Peque Gallaga and his distinguished body of work, we have chosen to revisit his 1982 classic Oro, Plata, Mata. Often considered his masterpiece, Oro, Plata, Mata won the Gawad Urian awards for 'Best Picture,' 'Best direction,' 'Best Cinematography,' 'Best Production Design,' 'Best Musical Score' and 'Best Sound.' The film also won the Luna Awards for 'Best Production Design' and 'Best Supporting Actress' (Liza Lorena).

The Philippine Animation Workers Association (PAWA) introduced a playlist of short films through its “free to watch, pay what you can” project that aims to spread good vibes during the quarantine period and encourage viewers to donate to charities such as the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Medical Foundation, Kaya Natin, People for Accountable Governance and Sustainable Action (PAGASA), and #PARaSCIBayan.

We have previously watched Birdshot, and Signal Rock, and Bayaning 3rd World. For part four of our series, we have chosen to revisit Kip Oebanda’s Bar Boys, a film that premiered in 2017’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino and was recently made available by the film director and producers for free streaming on Youtube.

Still building on your binge-watching list during the quarantine period? FDCP's Binging During Quarantine series can help you by highlighting Filipino films available in online streaming platforms. Our first two featured films are official entries of the Philippines to the Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards: "Birdshot" (2016) by Mikhail Red and "Signal Rock" (2018) by Chito S. Roño. For our third installment, we have a classic this time: Gawad Urian Best Picture "Bayaning Third World" (1999) by Mike de Leon.

This week, we chose Chito Roño’s Signal Rock, a film that premiered in 2018’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino where it won various awards on its way to being selected as the Philippine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. Signal Rock is currently available for streaming on iWant and iTunes. 

Perhaps the most helpful thing most people can do right now under the pandemic situation is to stay at home, follow the community quarantine, and flatten the covid curve. For many folks, this gives plenty of free time to binge-watch new shows and movies online (imagine that! Binging is already a form of helping out your community!). Here at FDCP, as lovers and promoters of Philippine cinema, we’ve decided to start our series: Binging on Quarantine, to revisit and explore the many great films of Philippine cinema that we can include in our quarantine watch-list. We hope that this series brings forward a further appreciation of Philippine movies and allow us to see all its excellence and diversity.

There is no small role in this entry to the 2012 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival with story and direction by Emmanuel Quindo Palo. The powerhouse cast features Coco Martin, Alessandra de Rossi, Angel Aquino, Irma Adlawan, Nanding Josef, Joe Gruta, Lui Manansala, Leo Martinez, Patricia Ismael, Rie Batingana, Dax Alejandro, and the late Anita Linda who garnered local and international awards for her portrayal of Lola Bining.

In this rainy season when the sun is nowhere to be found, camouflaged in the grey skies, hiding behind heavy clouds about to pour down at any minute, losing your sense of time is perfectly normal. Binging During Quarantine (BDQ) is back with a film to match your mood in this gloomy weather, perfect with that hot beverage you are about to make. 

As we press pause on our Zoom quiz nights and E-numan sessions, planning our long-overdue reunions with our family and friends, discovering new films to watch is the best way to recharge. The Binging During Quarantine (BDQ) series of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) is here to satisfy your constant yearning for Filipino films you probably haven’t seen before. BDQ features local films available on the FDCP Channel for only PHP 99 for a monthly subscription. 

In celebration of this year’s Pride Month, the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) is holding the 2nd PelikuLAYA: LGBTQIA+ Film Festival  online to celebrate and empower the LGBTQIA+ community, tackling relevant issues and the importance of gender representation.