Antoinette Jadaone launches Ilaya Ilaya to champion women-led Filipino cinema

Filipino filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone is launching Ilaya Ilaya, a new production outfit she will run with longtime collaborator Reign Anne De Guzman. The slate aims to champion Filipino cinema, women-led stories, unappreciated genres, and filmmakers who struggle to find support outside traditional studio systems and festival funding cycles.

The first project in the slate is Birdsong, a found-footage horror directed by Pam Miras and written by Glenn Barit, with Irene Villamor on board as creative producer. The film follows an ornithologist who travels to a remote mountain in search of a mythical bird while also seeking closure for a partner’s disappearance a decade earlier. The project won the Kantana Sound Studio Asian Project Award at Bangkok International Content Market 2026. “It’s our first time working with Pam Miras as a director, and it is in a genre that is male-dominated,” Jadaone said.

Ilaya Ilaya is also developing Chandra Catacutan And The Curse Of The Fuchsia Moon, a supernatural comedy starring Eugene Domingo and directed by Tim Rone Villanueva. Domingo plays the eldest daughter of a manananggal, with the children of the creature reuniting after she suffers a stroke mid-air and fails to return to her lower half. Jadaone said Villanueva’s resourcefulness and pop culture fluency align with the company’s aims.

Crème de la Crème is a coming-of-age whodunnit directed by Irene Emma Villamor, written by Glenn Barit from a Natts Jadaone story, partly inspired by a 2006 incident at the Philippine Science High School involving mercury nitrate in a classmate’s water jug.

Boldstar is a dark comedy starring Angelica Panganiban and produced by Bianca Balbuena. The project won the CJ Entertainment Prize at the Asian Project Market in 2019 and was later selected for Berlinale’s European Co-Production Market in 2020. Balbuena noted the momentum from Sunshine’s Berlinale Crystal Bear win and sold-out local screenings as a backdrop for Boldstar’s revival.

Beyond film, Ilaya Ilaya is developing a Netflix Philippines romcom series with Jadaone as showrunner. Plot and casting details are under wraps, with co-writing credit to Fatrick Tabada. Netflix Philippines’ Vitto Lazatin welcomed the collaboration.

Rounding out the slate is an immersive stage adaptation of Sunshine, directed by Mikko Angeles and written by Mika Regis, with Maris Racal set for her stage debut. The experience is envisioned as a choose-your-own-adventure that places audiences inside Sunshine’s world to explore agency, complicity, and choice beyond the screen.

“Before we were filmmakers, we were lovers of Philippine cinema. We want to be more intentional now about telling stories and working with people who demonstrate a genuine love for Philippine cinema,” Jadaone said. De Guzman added that the slate aims to tell stories they truly believe in and to broaden Filipino cinema’s reach.

Source: Deadline

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