Take a first look at the first-ever full-length animated film entry at Cinemalaya by Carl Joseph Papa, titled “Iti Mapukpukaw (The Missing).” One of its executive producers, Antoinette Jadaone, took to Twitter to share the 1-minute and 30-second trailer of the film. “Over a year of development. Seven months of animation. 90 Filipino animators. This is #ItiMapukpukaw (The Missing),” she wrote.
Over a year of development. Seven months of animation. 90 Filipino animators. This is #ItiMapukpukaw (The Missing).
Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, August 4-13, 2023.
Gala night on August 8, 6pm PICC
🎟️Tickets now available at https://t.co/9iM4lEmduz pic.twitter.com/apNkxNDsjB— Toñet (@tonetjadaone) July 31, 2023
The film is a Filipino-Ilocano rotoscope animated film that follows the story of a mouthless young man Eric whose memories were untangled after a familiar alien comes back to take him.
It is written and directed by Carl Joseph Papa – who has written several projects including his first feature film “Ang ‘Di Paglimot ng mga Alaala” in 2014, which won the NETPAC Jury Prize at the 2014 QCinema International Film Festival, and his 2017 short film “Love Bites,” which was nominated for “Best Picture” under the QCShorts Competition in that year’s festival edition – and will star the voices of Gio Gahol, Gawad Urian-winner Carlo Aquino, and Golden Globe Awards-nominee and FAMAS-winner Dolly De Leon.
Our trailer is out!💪🏽 To perform in an animated feature film -✔️and I couldn’t be prouder of this first in my career as an actor. This film is also extra special to me because my character speaks Ilokano here – the language from my Dad’s side. Excited for you all to see this!
1/4— Dolly de Leon (@DollyEdeLeon) July 31, 2023
“Iti Mapupukaw” is among the top ten full-length finalists for the 19th year of the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, dubbed as Cinemalaya XIX: ilumiNasyon, featuring a variety of movies made by independent filmmakers.
As such, the film by Papa is the only and the first-ever full-length film to be a finalist in the prestigious indie film festival that is completely animated.
It will compete against the first-ever documentary finalist Sheryl Andes’ “Maria,” and other films including Jopy Arnaldo’s “Gitling,” Gian Arre’s “Tether,” Dustin Celestino’s “Ang Duyan ng Magiting,” Kenneth De La Cruz’s “Bulawan Nga Usa (Golden Deer),” Samantha Lee’s “Rookie,” Ryan Machado’s “Huling Palabas,” Kevin Mikhail Mayuga’s “When This is All Over,” and John Roger’s “As If It’s True.”
These filmmakers are said to be the first batch of finalists to undergo the three-month-long film-laboratory mentorship program by Cinemalaya, the Cinemalaya Film Lab.
This year’s film festival will run from August 4 to 13 and will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) as the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) – wherein, the venue annually took place – is under renovation.
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