Kino Lorber is set to release the Sundance Film Festival prize-winner FILIPIÑANA on VOD and digital platforms later this month, arriving on October 27th, 2026. The film world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision, and launched in US theaters on August 28th, 2026.
Filipiñana is written and directed by Rafael Manuel in his feature film debut, which expands upon his 2020 Silver Bear-winning thesis short film. It stars Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, and Nour Hooshmand.
In the film, amid stifling heat and pervasive drought, Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto), a 17-year-old Ilokana from the rural north, works at a posh country club outside Manila, lining up golf balls for powerful men to drive into the verdant horizon. New to the job, she wanders the immaculate grounds sampling its luxuries as members, including an industrialist and his expatriate niece, the club president and his pampered wife, and a slew of Chinese tourists, engage in a complex dance with the club’s doting and subservient staff.
But something is rotting beneath the pristine fairways of the elite resort, as Isabel discovers when she tries to return a mislaid golf club to its patriarchal director, Dr. Palanca (Teroy Guzman). The deeper she journeys into its most exclusive corners, the closer she gets to the violent truths of the club, her native Philippines, and her own past.
The film was selected as the Philippine entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.
We’ve added the release date to our Streaming Calendar. Check out the film’s official US trailer below.