ENTERTAINMENT NEWS, REVIEWS
Juan Karlos’ latest foray propels him to star status in Puregold CinePanalo feature film “Mono No Aware,” with a role that allows him to anchor one of the most thoughtful and emotional films in this year’s festival.
The Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival 2026 recently presented the 26 participating original films and their extraordinarily talented makers at a lively media conference held at Quantum Skyview in Gateway Mall 2, Araneta City.
Queer Filipino voices are no longer sitting in the margins—they are claiming the spotlight. Leading the charge is digital powerhouse Sassa Gurl, star of Multwoh (Patay na Patay Sa’yo), one of seven full-length entries in this year’s Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival.
WANTAWSAN, an entry in the 2026 Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival directed by Joseph Abello, stars Joross Gamboa as a dad facing hard choices. The film shows how poor families navigate politics, money troubles, and the true cost of a father’s love.
Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival is bolstering its support for Filipino filmmakers by introducing—for the first time ever—the new Panorama Shorts Section, which will feature previously completed short films from both professional and student filmmakers.
Making a feature film just got a lot easier for this year’s Puregold CinePanalo filmmakers. CMB Film Services is officially back on board as a festival partner, and they are bringing a massive budget boost with them by raising their equipment rental grants to a cool PHP 1.25 million per project—marking a PHP 250,000 bump from last year.
Puregold CinePanalo is partnering with post-production house Terminal Six Post to award post-production grants to the seven full-length feature films making their debut at the 2026 CinePanalo Film Festival. Each film will receive a Terminal Six Post voucher worth PHP100,000, which can be applied toward a range of post-production services, helping filmmakers elevate their final outputs for theatrical exhibition.
Joross Gamboa (Deadma Walking, Hello, Love, Goodbye), Rita Daniela (Huling Ulan sa Tag-Araw) and child actor Zion Cruz have joined Abello in his third feature-length film, ‘Wantawsan.’ Also part of the cast is TV, movie and theater veteran, Raffy R. Tejada.
Puregold CinePanalo, currently on its third iteration, has unveiled the top 20 student short films culled from an impressive pool of 267 submissions nationwide. Chosen from an initial top 53 shortlist, the select entries were crafted by the Philippines’ most promising student filmmakers who are poised to shape the future of Philippine cinema.
As Puregold CinePanalo continues to endeavor producing world-class Filipino films in its third run, the film festival announced its collaboration with audio post house Stage Post Audio and Music Productions Inc., to help bring a unified approach to the audio quality of this year’s entries.