Philippines: Last News

NewJeans and Lim Young-woong taking home the most awards – view the full list of winners below.On December 14, the Asia Artist Awards held its 2023 awards ceremony at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, the Philippines. It selects winners in several categories that cover music, television and film based on data gathered from several East and Southeast Asian countries, Argentina, Mexico and Europe.The show was hosted by Kang Daniel, IVE’s Jang Won-young and ZEROBASEONE’s Sung Han-bin, and featured performances from several K-pop artists throughout the night.

Vincent Rodriguez is making history on the Hallmark Channel!

Jaden Thompson Lola Dee, a popular singer in the 1950s who toured with Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante and Johnnie Ray, has died. She was 95. The pop singer, who was signed to Columbia and Mercury labels in the ’50s, died of natural causes in Hinsdale, Illinois at a nursing facility, as announced by her publicist and CD producer Alan Eichler.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Korean-produced series “The Glory” won the best drama series award on Thursday at the Asian Academy Creative Awards Gala Final. Thai-produced TV movie “Hunger” was named best feature film. The awards are organized by the Asian Academy of Creative Arts (AACA) a.k.a Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA) and are held alongside the Asia Television Forum and Market (ATF) in Singapore. The AACA “was established to honor creative excellence and serve as a peer judged pinnacle of achievement in content creation, performance and media production.” By the conclusion of the gala ceremony, Singapore, Japan and India had each claimed seven prize wins.

Naman Ramachandran “Sunday,” which has its world premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival, marks the feature directorial debut of Sean Ng. Ng previously directed a few shorts and his producing credits include feature documentary “André and His Olive Tree” (2020), which was Taiwan’s highest-grossing documentary that year. “Sunday” was developed at TorinoFilmLab.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Singapore actor and filmmaker Alaric Tay (“Zombiepura”), through his Very Tay Media company has joined forces with two Philippines companies Black Ops Studios Asia and PsyOps Studios to produce a slate of films aimed at international markets. The venture, that was facilitated by Hong Kong-based producer Mike Leeder, was announced on the eve of the Asia Television Forum (ATF) in Singapore. They aim to put together a combined slate across diverse genres, including action, sci-fi, horror and comedy and have suggested a timeline extending to the fourth quarter of 2026. The joint venture also includes partnerships with other Asian companies including Screen Ops (HK), Fly Entertainment, Causeway Media Productions and IAmCasting. “Singapore and the Philippines have the individual potential to execute projects with commercial appeal,” said Tay. “But by building stories together with like-minded visionaries beyond our own shores, we can elevate the types of projects that are being produced in our collective countries.” Tay was the star and executive producer of 2018 Singapore zombie movie “Zombiepura.” He was also co-producer and director of HBO Asia’s first comedy drama series “SeNT” and is best known for playing multiple characters on Mediacorp satirical series “The Noose.” Headed by director Pedring Lopez and producer Rex Lopez, Black Ops Studios Asia and PsyOps Studios focus on action films and series.

A bare-knuckle boxing champion faces deportation back to Scotland from the Philippines. Derek “Decca” Heggie, from Montrose, Angus, faces proceedings to send him home after details of a past criminal conviction came to light.

With its seventh weekend numbers tallied, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour has topped the $250M global benchmark. At $250.01M per AMC, the split is a little over $178.2M domestic with $71.8M coming from the international box office.

Sheynnis Alondra Palacios Cornejo became Miss Universe 2023, Miss Spain Athenea Paulinha Pérez was named Miss Congeniality. This award goes to the friendliest contestant and is the only honor determined by a contestant vote.Miss Philippines Michelle Dee, one of the top 10 finalists, won the award for Voice for Change alongside Miss Angola Ana Coimbra and Miss Puerto Rico Karla Guilfú.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Philippines’ ABS-CBN is to launch its new series “The Bagman” at next month’s ATF market in Singapore. Series star Arjo Atayde will attend as part of the promotional team. “The Bagman” is a spin-off from the original, locally-produced digital series “Bagman” that was aimed at the Filipino audience.

Philippines media and entertainment company ABS-CBN is set to launch tentpole co-production The Bagman at this year’s Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) in Singapore, with the star of the series, Arjo Atayde, also attending the event. 

The first group of hostages are being released from Gaza, more than six weeks after the October 7 attack.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The QCinema Project Market, the industry initiative that accompanies The Philippines’ QCinema International Film Festival, revealed its winners list on Tuesday delivering almost $500,000 of grants and in-kind support. The prizes followed a two-day networking and pitching event on Nov. 18 and 19 for 19 feature-length fiction film projects from Southeast Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cannes’ Directors Fortnight section has joined forces with The Philippines for the latest edition of its Directors Factory professional training program. Operating since 2013, when it kicked off in Taiwan, the Directors’ Factory works with a new partner country each year to mentor eight budding filmmakers who are preparing ambitious first or second feature projects that they will make in pairs. The four resulting co-written and co-directed short films will be screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight (aka Quinzaine des Cineastes) in May. Four pairs were selected in Manila in October: Eve Baswel (Philippines) and Gogularaajan Rajendran (Malaysia); Maria Estela Paiso (Philippines) and Ashok Vish (India); Arvin Belarmino (Philippines) and Lomorpich Rithy (aka YoKi) (Cambodia); Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (Philippines) and Tan Siyou (Singapore). They have now begun writing their screenplays and are expected to shoot their films March in Dapitan, a city in The Philippines’ Zamboanga Peninsula, known for its many shrines and as the place of exile of Philippines’ national hero, Jose Rizal. These days it is a hub for domestic and international tourism. Post-production of the four titles will then be hosted in Quezon City, which seeks to become the new film capital of the Philippines and where many of the country’s post-production houses are already based. The program is operated and co-produced by Epicmedia Productions of The Philippines and Dominique Welinski, founder and curator of DW (France).

ABS-CBN Entertainment and regional streamer Viu are teaming on a Philippines remake of CJ ENM’s hit romcom series What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim. 

Disney original animation is looking at a comeback this Thanksgiving. The princess pic Wish is looking at as much as $45M-$50M over five days after the studio suffering a setback over last year’s holiday with Strange World, which did $18.8M.

French studio Federation’s new theatrical sales arm Ginger & Fed and Paris-based genre specialist WTFilms have unveiled a slew of AFM deals for apocalyptic thriller Survive.

Michaela Zee Geffen Records and Hybe, the K-pop entertainment company behind BTS and NewJeans, have announced the final six members of the new girl group Katseye. The Katseye finalists, who were unveiled at a live event in L.A. on Friday night, include Daniela Avanzini, Lara Rajagopalan and Megan Skiendiel from the U.S.; Yoonchae Jeong from South Korea; Sophia Laforteza from the Philippines; and Manon Bannerman from Switzerland.

Naman Ramachandran Tatino Films, a French production and consultancy company involved in industry events in Asia and Europe, has teamed with Kazakhstan-based Alternativa Film Project and the Philippines’ QCinema Project Market for three film residencies. The partnership will yield two Pop Up film residencies called the Pop Up Alternativa Awards for filmmakers from Central Asia and one Pop Up QCFC (Quezon City Film Commission) x QCinema Award for Southeast Asian filmmakers to develop their upcoming film projects.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, one of the biggest female streamers and gaming creators in the world, has signed with WME for representation. She most recently was repped by UTA. Valkyrae is known for streaming games “Among Us,” “Fortnite” and “Valorant,” among others.

Taiwan-Japan documentary After the Snowmelt and Filipino fantasy feature Mother Maybe were presented with the TAICCA X CNC Awards at the close of the pitching forum at Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF). Both awards came with a cash prize of $30,000.