“ORIGINALITY in all its permutations” is the enduring battle cry of the now 15-year-old Cinema One Originals Film Festival as it continues to present films that challenge audiences to experience something “that goes beyond cinema, beyond cinephilia, beyond entertainment.” And with that mantra, the festival is presenting eight films from various genres from horror to the tried-and-tested romantic comedy.

The festival will run from Nov. 7 to 17 in select Ayala Malls cinemas (TriNoma, Glorietta, Manila Bay), PowerPlant Cinemas, and Gateway Cinemas.

The festival’s theme this year is “Kaya Mo Ba?” (Can you handle it?) with each of the eight competition films given a P3 million production grant.

“We tried to cover all film genres. When you watch the films, you will be enlightened and lightened will the themes of the entries. It’s not all dark,” Ronald Arguelles, festival director and channel head of Cinema One, said during a press conference on Oct. 22 at the Dolphy Theater, Quezon City.

Four of the films are the debut features of their respective directors like J.E. Tiglao’s Metamorphosis, a coming-of-age drama about intersexuality “that’s as wistful as it is provocative,” said a press release. The film stars Gold Aceron, Iana Bernardez, Ivan Padilla, Ricky Davao, and Yayo Aguila.

Another full-length feature debut is Eve Baswel’s Tia Madre, a gothic horror film about a young girl who starts to suspect her mother has been changed into something not quite human; as is Dustin Celestino’s Utopia, a riff on the noir genre which brings together a freelance videographer, a rookie police officer, an undercover PDEA agent, and a crime in progress while a comet flies over Manila. Tia Madre stars Cherie Gil and Jana Agoncillo while Utopia stars Enzo Pineda, Joem Bascon, and Aaron Villaflor.

Nigel Santos is also presenting his debut entry, Yours Truly, Shirley, a film about a widow who believes a young pop star is the reincarnation of her late husband. The film stars Regine Velasquez and Rayt Carreon.

Among the other four competition films are Lucid by Victor Villanueva, which is about a lucid dreamer who meets a mysterious person she can’t control in her dreams, starring Alessandra de Rossi and JM de Guzman; and O by Kevin Dayrit, a black comedy about vampires and drug-dealing which stars Anna Luna, Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Lauren Young.

“O is an exercise in giving the most clichéd concepts and genres a new flavor. It’s the same old hotdog, just dipped in peanut butter. It tastes offensive but funny at the same time,” Mr. Dayrit said of his film in the release.

In Sila Sila, Giancarlo Abrahan explores an LGBT story about “ghosting” or the practice of leaving a person hanging once the other party wants to stop the relationship. The film stars Topper Fabregas and Gio Gahol.

Denise O’Hara’s Tayo Muna Habang Hindi Pa Tayo might be a romantic-comedy at first glance — it stars JC Santos and Jane Oineza — but is a film about the “underside of trauma that even the truest of loves have,” according to a press release.

Aside from the competition films, Cinema One Originals opens with The Witch by Robert Eggers, a period horror film that is said to be as much about religious hysteria as it is about the rational world being encroached by the irrational. It opens on Nov. 7, 7 p.m., at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay Cinema 7.

The festival closes with Mikhail Red’s noir film, Dead Kids, which follows a group of entitled teenage misfits who visit their own skewed version of justice on the school jock who also happens to be the child of a drug lord and whom they decide to kidnap for ransom. The film will be screened on Nov. 17, 9:50 p.m., at Gateway Cinema 5.

Also included in this year’s festival programming are restored classics from ABS-CBN Film Restoration and FPJ Studios: Aguila (1980) by Eddie Romero, Bulaklak sa City Jail (1984) by Mario O’Hara, Misteryo sa Tuwa (1984) by Abbo dela Cruz, Bad Bananas sa Puting Tabing (1983) by Peque Gallaga, Tisoy (1977) by Ishmael Bernal, and Carlitos Siguion-Reyna’s Hihintayin Kita sa Langit (1991) and Saan Ka Man Naroroon (1993).

For the complete screening schedule, visit the Cinema One Originals Facebook page. — Zsarlene B. Chua

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