The Third Annual San Diego Filipino Film Festival

The most anticipated installment of San Diego Filipino Cinema’s year-long programming, the San Diego Filipino Film Festival (SDFFF) is back on its third year this fall from October 3-8, 2023. Held during Filipino American History Month in October, SDFFF is SDFC's centerpiece event that aims to raise awareness for Filipino cinema as an important art form and a powerful tool for representation, education, and entertainment. SDFFF will bring San Diego communities together to celebrate diversity, culture, and heritage through cinema with a diverse mix of narrative features, documentaries, and short films.

Last year, SDFFF became the largest curator and exhibitor of global Filipino films in the United States. In its third run this October, SDFFF has selected 103 films in total to participate both at the in-person main Festival screenings and in the virtual screenings of the Festival called Virtual Cinema Selects to be held after the in-person Festival takes place. SDFFF’s six-day in-person film screenings will have Q&As with the filmmakers, networking events, and the Visions & Voices panel discussion.

“We have our amazing community of supporters, audiences, and volunteers to thank for supporting us year after year to become what we are today. We continue to uphold and focus on our mission to strengthen our representation through film and to nurture Filipino stories and storytellers through our platform, ” says Benito Bautista, Executive Director & Cofounder of San Diego Filipino Cinema.

“It’s quite telling to have this amazing outpouring of support and participation from our film community worldwide - this means that we have a treasure trove of unique perspectives and stories out there, and we need a platform like SDFFF to house these film gems for the diverse audience to learn and enjoy, ” says Emma Francisco Bautista, Programming Director & Cofounder of SDFC.


Festival Highlights
SDFFF 2023 opens with Emmy award-winning filmmaker Michele Josue’s Nurse Unseen at The Lot Liberty Station. Josue’s feature-length documentary highlights the history and humanity of unsung Filipino nurses and unearths the colonial ties between the Philippines and United States that has led to Filipino nurses becoming the unknown backbone of the U.S. and global healthcare systems.

At the heart of the Festival is our Centerpiece Feature, Searching for Kapwa, directed by Larry Daguino Lariosa and Terrence Marcotte. Winner of the Kinship Award at this year’s DisOrient Asian American Film Festival, the film draws from the pre-colonial Filipino belief or value coined as kapwa, or “shared identity.”

A special screening event “Honoring Gloria Sevilla” with Maria S. Ranillo’s feature drama Pagbalik (The Return) is another top highlight during the Festival. Gloria Sevilla who passed away in April of last year was a multi-awarded Filipino actress known as the Queen of Visayan Movies in the Philippines. To close out the Festival, Tony and Grammy award-winning broadway and film producer, Jhett Tolentino, will hold the San Diego premiere of his debut feature romantic comedy Asian Persuasion at the Closing Night of the Festival. Asian Persuasion stars Hollywood actors Dante Basco and Paolo Montalban, and Philippine actress KC Concepcion.

Additional Feature Narratives throughout the week include Therese Anne Cabaya’s Delia & Sammy starring Rosemarie Gil, Jaime Fabregas, and Nico Antonio, Keli’i Grace’s My Partner starring Kaipo Dudoit and Jayron Munoz, and Shugo Praico’s Nanahimik Ang Gabi (A Silent Night) starring Ian Veneracion, Heaven Peralejo, and Mon Confiado. These features are interspersed with seven Shorts Programs, exhibiting the works of an array of talented filmmakers exploring a wide range of stories that can connect to any SDFFF attendee. This year’s shorts lineup includes Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Grand Jury Prize winner, “When You Left Me on That Boulevard” by San Diego native, filmmaker Kayla Abuda Galang.

SDFFF aims not only to be a platform to amplify Filipino visions, voices, and stories but also to foster new interest in filmmaking and cinema as art throughout the local and global Filipino community. SDFC strives to have the Festival accessible to everyone and welcomes audiences from all backgrounds.


SDFFF’S Opening Night Film: