Cinema One Originals 2018“I Am Original” is the tagline of the 14th Cinema One Originals. It is both a declaration by the filmmakers and the performers, and a promise that this year’s films will not be merely awesome, but also “flawsome,” a word coined to exemplify this year’s festival.

Crime seems to be a common thread in most of this year’s films, but from different vantage points and perspectives.

“A Short History of a Few Bad Things” by Keith Deligero (Cinema One Originals 2016 Best Director for “Lily”) may be the most straightforward, a noir procedural that has sociopolitical underpinnings.

Joseph Abello describes his second film, “Double Twisting Double Back,” as a sports crime film.

Bobby Bonifacio’s “Hospicio” begins with a botched crime and ends in the hospice.

Carl Papa (director of Cinema One Originals 2015 Best Picture “Manang Biring”) returns with “Paglisan,” about a couple struggling to keep their marriage alive. In Rod Singh’s “Mamu and A Mother Too,” a transgender woman becomes a surrogate mother to her transgender niece. And in John Lapus’ “Pang MMK,” a young man visits his estranged father’s funeral.

Whammy Alcazaren’s (director of the 2013 Cinema One Originals film “Islands”) “Never Tear Us Apart” combines Third World espionage with folklore.

Rayn Brizuela’s “Asuang” comes on like an odd superhero inversion. And in Charliebebs Gohetia’s “Bagyong Bheverlyn,” a woman realizes that a coming super typhoon is made of her own feelings.

Cinema One Originals is under the festival partnership program of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).

Catch the films on October 1221 in TriNoma, Glorietta, Gateway, Santolan Town Plaza and Power Plant Mall; in CineLokal theaters—SM North Edsa, SM Megamall, SM Manila and SM Sta. Mesa; and in alternative cinemas—FDCP Cinematheque Manila, UP Cine Adarna, Cinema ’76, Black Maria Theater and Cinema Centenario. (Story/Photos by: Kane Choa)