This Award-Winning Cinemalaya Entry, "Don Filipo" Got Approved Without Cuts

As Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival started to run its 17th edition, one of the films that is making great buzz online is the highly-acclaimed film by Tim Muñoz entitled “Don Filipo”. Part of the Cinemalaya’s Indie Nation category, Don Filipo is a horror story with a taste of Boylove (BL) component from Pink Elephant Productions which already achieved international milestones abroad from different Film Festivals.

Starring Luis Padilla and Adrian Arias, “Don Filipo” is a story of two individuals who met in a remote village that is gripped with fear because its residents go missing one by one. Not knowing what lies ahead of his assignment, this young nurse that is in town to care for an ailing Don Filipo welcomes new adventures in his professional and personal life. But the question sits: Will he be the next victim?

Let’s watch DON FILIPO Trailer

As the trailer shows a combination of horror and mystery story packed in one, you are in for a treat as the movie does not only tackle horror and suspense but also touches the BL portrayals that will help elucidate interesting story about LGBTQIA. The film also stars Rap Robes, Megan Sharpe, Steven Eduard Yu, Gaye Piccio, JM Martinez, Beverly Benny, Dindeth Ditablan, Nanette Gamboa, Yuri Ladrero, Yoh Buenaventura, Naomi Christine Gamboa, Aaron Javier, Justine Suan, and Potinairs Vicente.

For Director Tim Muñoz, “Don Filipo” is a just a passion project he did to appreciate and fully embrace the art of filmmaking but what I am seeing is a perfectly full-length film ready to tell an interesting story. I am yet to find out this weekend as I am also excited to catch the story. While you may see an R18 rating for the film, he shared that the committee didn’t remove anything to sensor as the scenes were done in an artistic way. So in essence we are going to catch a Director’s cut til September.

Again, based on the trailer itself, I can sense that the movie revolves around a wonderful cinematography and scoring. By the looks of it, I can sense that the film is sincere to its intention given that Munoz is a well-known story teller of BL stories from his credentials.

The BL genre became popular in Asia in the last couple of years, a great development for LGBTQIA narratives that paved the way for many wonderful stories in Pinoy movies and series. I have seen many BL stories in the past twelve months but this is the first time I have heard of a plot with a very interesting horror story dynamics. Additionally, Luis and Adrian are not new to the genre as they already appeared in some of the projects about BL.

What made this Cinemalaya entry more interesting and appealing is that as I have mentioned, it already won different awards internationally such as Best International Feature Film in Uruvatti International Film Festival (Karaikkudi, India); It also won Best LGBT film in the following Festivals: Germany (Mabig Film Festival); Sweden (Stockholm City Film Festival, Luleå International Film Festival) to mention a few.

As pandemic happen, Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival migrates to the online platform, ktx.ph, to continue its mission to discover, encourage, and honor cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers. And Director Tim Munoz pride itself to being part of the Festival he admire and respect.