For its 12th year, QCinema International Film Festival (QCIFF) is opening its doors for the second time to six emerging and established critics from all over the Philippines to participate in the QCinema Critics Lab. Motivated by a desire to expand and deepen the discourse on Filipino, Southeast Asian, and international cinema, QCinema has created the lab to actively support film criticism, promote coverage of non-English language and arthouse films in the Philippines, and assist talented film critics from any background and at any age in developing their careers as independent cultural workers with uncompromising voices.

The 2024 QCinema Critics Lab participants are Acer Batislaong, Brontë Lacsamana, Joaquin Singson, Ligaya Villablanca, Maverick Alviar, and Mac John Bautista. More information about each of them can be found below:

Acer Batislaong is a Caloocan-based writer who covers government contracting daily and independent Filipino cinema by night. He’s a contributor for IONCINEMA.com and has written features for Nylon Manila, covering youth culture and entertainment. In his downtime, you might find Acer listening to a voice memo from Lav Diaz urging him to keep chasing his filmmaking dreams.

Brontë Lacsamana is a multimedia reporter who covers arts, culture, and entertainment for the Philippine business newspaper BusinessWorld. She writes about visual arts, performing arts, music, literature, and cultural heritage, and reviews films in her free time. She has written online content and viewed audiovisual materials for archiving purposes.

Joaquin Singson is a writer and cultural worker from Quezon City. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism and has been published in Heights Ateneo and NANG Magazine. His research and writing is focused on music and art criticism, Cold War and Third World histories, and anti-imperial movements in the Global South.

Ligaya Villablanca is a dreamer from Visayas. They have programmed short films for micro-cinemas across Visayan islands, Australia, and the US. It has a hobby of bringing up conversations about regional cinema and how its existence plays a role in the national and worldwide stage.

Mac John Bautista is a Mechanical Engineering student at DLSU-Manila. He actively seeks out and frequently attends film events in and out of Metro Manila. He is currently a contributing writer for the Society of Filipino Film Reviewers and the managing director of Kinoise.

Maverick "Mavs" Alviar is pursuing his BA in Art Studies with a Minor in Theater and Performance Praxes at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has interned previously at the UP Vargas Museum, Likhaan Fair, and currently at the Bulwagan ng Dangal University Heritage Museum and Yuchengco Museum.

The QCinema Critics Lab is led by FIPRESCI member and three-time Golden Globe voter Jason Tan Liwag and offers insights into the crafts of film criticism, curation, and audience development. Participants will experience a three-day intensive in-person workshop/forum where they will watch and review films, interview filmmakers, and discuss with industry professionals — including but not limited to established critics, researchers, media professionals and more. Participants of the second edition of the lab are expected to release criticism in form of short reviews, long-form festival reports, podcasts, and video essays.

Experts who will be speaking at the sessions include (but are not limited to): founding editor-in-chief of CNN Philippines Life, Philippine consultant for the Far East Film Festival, and National Book Award nominee Don Jaucian; two-time National Book Award finalist and acclaimed film critic and programmer Richard Bolisay; musician, filmmaker, cultural journalist and recipient of the Prince Claus Seed Award, the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, and the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism Mariah Reodica; film critic, translator, and Gawad Urian nominated screenwriter Carl Javier; QCinema Critics Lab and FEFF Film Campus fellow and co-editor of MARG1N Magazine Alyssandra Maxine; and Brooklyn-based filmmaker, critic, programmer, and editor of Mike De Leon’s two-volume memoir Last Look Back Aaron E. Hunt.

As the QCinema Critics Lab becomes a continuing education initiative, all eight (8) emerging critics from its first edition will be invited back to participate in the forums and discuss with the new cohort of critics. They are: Alyssandra Maxine, Bane Vicente, Justine Danielle Reyes, Kaj Palanca, Lé Baltar, Novy Mae Recate, Red Sales, and Roselle Marie Abanilla.

The QCinema Critics Lab is a 12th QCinema International Film Festival program, taking place Nov. 8 to 17, 2024, and is made possible through a partnership with The Millas Hostel and Cafe and Sine Pop in Cubao.