At its core, Itim bedazzles its audience with an ethereal approach to storytelling. Much of it is quite moody and even beautiful in spite of its darkness. The way it couples together elements to examine the forsaken and the damned, the horrifying and sometimes disturbing treatment of different imagery, they all manifest a film that proves how excellent and seminal Itim is as a debut film in a legendary filmmaker’s catalogue.

‘She Said’ is a compelling narrative storytelling of the months-long journey of Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor as they write an article that helped in taking Weinstein down and starting a conversation about workplace harassment.

This year’s QCShorts certainly felt refreshing, in that the range of creativity espoused across all films in question reveals a creative pool of talent that is clearly present in today’s Philippine cinema. Ideas fresh and familiar, unique and exciting, they all come to play for this year’s roster of short films.

Despite the array of searing performances from its cast, Elehiya does nothing to stem the confusion that comes from vaguely dissecting a spiritually-charged island and its colonially-subdued inhabitants.

Amirpour's unwavering commitment to her vision of a stylistic neon pulp movie makes up for the lack of narrative, making the watching experience quite a vibe.

July Jung’s exposé of such a rat race is interesting, in that it identifies a dimension of South Korean culture not often expressed in detail, much less the unfairly competitive system built on corruption, crab mentality, and ruthlessness of working-class labor. If only Next Sohee could consistently find itself crawling out of such a tepid structure, which makes it feel too repetitive despite the emotionally devastating walls it puts up.

Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul is an engrossing character study on identity and what it means to belong, cycling through the inner serenity and restless intensity of oneself, full of multitudes, incredibly evocative, and admirably purposeful. While it may be meandering and confused at times, it is a journey worth taking.

With the use of various surreal imagery, the film effectively removes the idealized version of the empress the majority would have in their heads. It conditions the audience to see her for who she really is, an enigma, and possibly connect to her struggles not as a monarch, but as a human being.

‘LiveScream’ is a brutal and realistic mirror of society in the age of content creation, with its true horror lying in the lengths that people would go to just to have fame and money.

In ‘Reprise,’ amidst the hypnotic yet seemingly decaying landscape of Oslo and Paris, uncertainty is the most terrifying thing in the world, especially for twenty-somethings.

The tragedy of ‘Fanny’ is that they arrived too early and then arrived too late, but this documentary doesn’t offer a tale of wrong timing, but rather, a heartwarming ode to one of the forgotten pioneers of rock & roll.

All in all, “The Moises Padilla Story” is one of the most engaging experiences from the 60s. It’s a film whose propagandist and political elements with a mastery of fundamentals, creating something riveting and enchanting only boggled by external imperfections.

In Don Hertzfeldt’s “World of Tomorrow,” a 16-minute animated short film, all the sci-fi shenanigans revolve around the existential struggle of an adorable 4-year-old girl coming into contact with a third-generation clone of herself 227 years in the future.

‘Nang Maglublob Ako sa Isang Mangkok ng Liwanag’ is proof that it is not enough to imagine a better world and humane conditions for our trans folks and queer siblings because only when we actively act on achieving this can it truly materialize, which speaks of what trans cinema really means.

With a dash of mystery and a range of frightening, paranormal scenes, ‘The Black Phone’ is a unique take on the horror genre but ultimately falls short in the delivery of its story.

Familiar tropes and sentiments cloud Prime Cruz's latest work, but despite its imitations and self-awareness, "Ngayon Kaya" is still capable of hitting its audience in spots and moments.

‘Elvis’ breaks the boundaries of the biopic umbrella, taking the film scene by a storm of Luhrmann glitz and glamour and Butler magic.

“Boundary” finds itself toeing the line between right and wrong, expertly weaving between figures whose righteousness is easily questioned thanks to great pacing rarely seen from the genre.

“Ang Kababaihan ng Malolos” is clearly and consciously well-informed of the details, but struggles in imprinting itself well to the audience.

In a world where freedom and truth are always taken by those in power, this film couldn’t be more timely. The Silence of Others gave voice to the victims of the long forgotten history of Franco’s regime and courageously confronts the issues of Spain’s “Pact of Forgetting” Amnesty law.