Over a decade ago, Bianca Catbagan was beside herself for having seen for the first time Marie Jamora’s Ang Nawawala at Cinemalaya that it instantly became a blueprint for the stories she would later tell, after earning her film degree at the University of the Philippines in 2010 and completing her MFA in directing and screenwriting at Columbia University in 2018. “Ang Nawawala changed what I thought an interesting story could be,” she said. “When I first started writing, I assumed films had to be about big events or extraordinary people.
I didn’t think to look at my own life.” The film, a coming of age of sorts about a privileged young man who has retreated irrecoverably inward such that he only speaks to the ghost of his dead twin brother, hews closely to the Manila music scene she used to be fully wrapped up in. “Back then, it was just my everyday life. The gigs, the late-night drinking sessions, crushes on bands,” she continued.
“Seeing them on screen made me realize that my emotional world was enough to be put on screen. Marie Jamora always talks about how films are e-motion pictures, full of feeling. Her work gave me permission to dig into my own life and experiences and to trust that my personal truth can carry a film.” Now based in Los Angeles, Catbagan follows in the footsteps of Jamora, both mentor and close friend, as only the third Filipino filmmaker in 50 years to be part of the prestigious 2027 cohort of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women+.
Jamora was the first Filipino to be admitted into the year-long program in 2019. “It’s a big milestone for me to be part of this program,” Catbagan told me. “Breaking into the film industry in LA is tough, especially as an immigrant.
Being selected feels like I’ve stepped into the next phase of my directing or opened a new chapter. It feels like a confirmation that I’ve gone deeper into my work and my voice as a filmmaker.” Sam Morelos (left) and Elena Heuzé (right) star as the central couple in ‘Royal Blood.’ Photos courtesy of Bianca Catbagan Alongside seven other filmmakers, Catbagan will realize her historical drama Royal Blood, which flips the iconicity of José Rizal’s Maria Clara on its head through sapphic lens. A modern romance filtered through an image of the past, the story follows two lovers (played by Elena Heuzé and Sam Morelos) in late 1880s Manila whose relationship grows more erratic upon the arrival of the Rizalian character (played by Marsha Rosales).
It is the Filipino director’s third collaboration with the Filipino-French actor Heuzé, who also stars in her forthcoming short film Jump. Maria Clara is an image of womanhood that’s been both upheld and challenged in Filipino society – this Catbagan knows. But the filmmaker is less “interested in keeping her fixed on that pedestal” than in exploring “what happens when you break that image open.” “The original Maria Clara is refined, but also built around fragility,” she explained.
“She is an idea of femininity that’s composed, restrained, respectful, and even performative in suffering. I wanted to push against that. Through a queer gaze, I’m not discarding her, I’m reimagining her.
I’m asking what she becomes when she’s no longer just an ideal of ‘proper’ Filipino femininity, but something more full and complex.” The film, Catbagan continued, wrestles with what it means to conform in a world built against minorities and outcasts. “In many ways, that was Manila’s strict, Catholic society to me. That was the feeling I had, figuring out who I was, in my parents’ home.” “I’m interested in what it means to hide behind obedience, to make yourself small in order to survive.
Something that echoes the figure of Maria Clara. So the film became a way for me to ask: in the face of erasure, whether personal or historical, how do our deeper desires persist? And what happens when they finally refuse to stay hidden?” Catbagan says finding her footing as a filmmaker in Los Angeles has been tough.
Photo courtesy of Isaac Inocentes Prior to Royal Blood, Catbagan already had a number shorts under her belt, such as Letters to the Future (2014), Saturno (2018), and Apartment 605 (2023) — her most successful film to date screening at fests the likes of the 2025 Queer East Film Festival and the 2024 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival — as well as the feature Suntok sa Buwan (2012), co-directed by Jose Antonio de Rivera. Also taking its cue from Stephen Frears’s Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Roger Kumble’s Cruel Intentions (1999), Royal Blood is written by Catbagan’s frequent collaborator and real-life partner, British Filipino filmmaker Andrea A.
Walter, who is now mentored by Lilly Wachowski. It will be shot in California, with LA stepping in for Old Manila, though Catbagan originally thought of filming it back home, after shopping the project around in Canada, Manila, and LA. “I even dreamt about it,” she said. “I just woke up to a feeling of certainty that it had to be shot back home.” But t