Film fest restarts in Manila with black and white 'Parasite' as opening salvo

MANILA, Philippines — A black and white version of South Korean blockbuster movie “Parasite” will be opening at this year’s QCinema on November 27.

In a virtual press conference yesterday, QCinema announced that the monochromatic version of the Best Picture Academy Award winner directed by Bong Joon-ho will be theatrically released by invitation only in the Philippines.

According to the festival, this version was first released at the Rotterdam Film Festival last January.

Related: 'Parasite' makes history and other Oscars 2020 fun facts

Known for its well curated films in this side of Southeast Asia, QCinema Special Edition returns with a slate that will either be streamed online or physically screened with a limited audience. It will take place from November 27 to December 5.

“Like many other film festivals around the world, we’ve had to adapt to the unprecedented challenges of 2020. Factoring in safety concerns and restrictions, we’ve decided to follow the global trend of staging a hybrid film festival,” festival Ed Lejano said.

The festival’s socially-distanced and by-invitation-only screenings will be held on its opening day, November 27 and on November 28, at an outdoor venue in Quezon City. 

QCinema will also have a ceremonial turnover of the COVID-19 assistance grant it is giving to the Inter-Guild Alliance and will announce the winners of its COVID Completion Grant at the opening. The grant is for chosen independent films forced to halt production and post-production during the pandemic lockdown.

Winners of its QCShort Shorts Competition will also be announced at the event.

On November 28, it will present to a limited number of viewers the movies "Identifying Features" by Fernande Valadez and "Death of Nintendo" by Raya Martin.

"Identifying Features" won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival 2020. It also won Best Screenplay at the same festival. "Death of Nintendo" is a coming-of-age tale that had its world premiere at Berlinale 2020.

After the screening, QCinema will host the launch of the book "Philippine Cinema" written by Gaspar Vibal and Dennis Villegas and edited by Teddy Co.

The festival’s online screening will be released nationwide through Upstream, the newly launched online Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) streaming platform. Tickets may be purchased from the country’s largest aggregator for online cinema ticketing, GMovies.

QCinema 2019, 2018, and 2017 Best Picture winners will also stage a comeback. These are "Cleaners" by Glenn Barit; "Oda sa Wala" by Dwein Baltazar; and "Balangiga Howling Wilderness" by Khavn. The fourth is the big winner at the recent Urian Awards, "Babae at Baril" by Rae Red.

The Asian Special Edition includes the only Philippine entry at the 2020 Venice Film Festival and Malaysia’s entry to the 93rd Academy Awards.

Genus, "Pan" by Lav Diaz is a look at how much human beings are like animals. The film won for Diaz the Best Director award at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. Meanwhile, "Roh" is a 2019 Malaysian Malay-language indie arthouse horror film by Emir Ezwan.

Two feature films will be shown under New Horizons, QCinema’s program that puts the spotlight on first and second-time filmmakers who are receiving accolades from the international film festival circuit.

"Song Without a Name" is a 2019 Peruvian drama film directed by Melina León. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It is also the Peruvian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.

"Rom" by Tran Thanh Huy, the first Vietnamese film to receive the New Current Awards at the 24th Busan International Film Festival, is also in the New Horizons section.

Lastly, Screen International section features three films that earned widespread acclaim in different film festivals.

The first film is a Brazilian drama screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, "Divine Love" by Gabriel Mascaro.

A 2020 Cannes Film Festival selection, "True Mothers," a Japanese drama film by Naomi Kawase is also in QCinema’s Screen International. This was Japan’s entry at the 93rd Academy Awards.

The third, "Corpus Christi," is a Polish film by Mateusz Pacewicz, which premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival and was the Polish entry in the 92nd Academy Awards.