Promising catalysts and icons make up Puregold CinePanalo 2026 Top 15 full-length films
Tomas Kauer - News Moderator 
Puregold CinePanalo 2026 has released their official Top 15 short list for the festival’s full-length category. The select entries come from the country’s most driven directors who range from emerging voices in the field to eminent visionaries of the industry. The diversity and quality of the lineup assure cineastes that this will be the most competitive and exciting year of the Puregold CinePanalo yet.
From the list of 15, only seven filmmakers will be selected, each of whom will receive P5 million — the highest production grant in Philippine film festival history.
The Top 15 full-length films for the 2026 Puregold CinePanalo are:
Puregold’s Senior Marketing Manager and Festival Chair Ivy Hayagan-Piedad spoke on what the Top 15 lineup means for the festival as a whole. “The 2026 Puregold CinePanalo lineup is a revelation to us at the festival. Only three years in, we’ve earned the attention and trust of some of the country’s most important filmmakers,” said Ms. Hayagan-Piedad. “We are indebted to all the participants who entrusted their best-kept stories to us. We are humbled and extremely excited to make these dream projects a panalo reality.”
Puregold CinePanalo has undeniably developed a reputation for producing internationally acclaimed films. This includes Kurt Soberano’s Under a Piaya Moon, Sigrid Bernardo’s Pushcart Tales, TM Malones’ Salum, JP Habac’s Olsen’s Day, and many more, which have received recognition in Pakistan, Morocco, Singapore, and the United States, among others. Today, the record-breaking production grant and the global prestige achieved by the festival’s past films have enticed even more directors to participate in the biggest Puregold CinePanalo yet.
The Top 15 filmmakers will face one more round of selection before the announcement of the official festival lineup. The short-listed filmmakers will pitch directly to the festival’s selection committee, which will have the difficult task of curating a final list of seven that will move on to the production phase.
The selected full-length films will screen at the 2026 Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival at the Gateway Cineplex 18 on Aug. 7 to 18, 2026.
Meanwhile, applications for the Puregold CinePanalo’s student shorts category continue. Interested applicants may still submit their dream projects to https://tinyurl.com/PCPFFShorts before 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2025.
For further inquiries, applicants may email thesecretariat@cinepanalo.com or message its official Facebook page @puregoldcinepanalo.
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