The first three quarters of 2026 made a strong case against waiting for December to name this year’s best films. Of this year’s crop of local films, the strongest works centered on women’s stories, from Sisa and Midnight Girls to Mag-iina. Horror carved out real space at the global box office too, through 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Obsession, and two entries on this list, Hokum and Backrooms.
Even Christopher Nolan got in on the horror moment, working genre elements into what we’ve called his career-defining epic, The Odyssey. International releases had just as strong a showing elsewhere, from a Spider-Man film that restored faith in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), to a rom-com daring enough to make its own audience squirm.
As we head into the last quarter of the year, we look back at the best local and international films we’ve seen from January to September.
‘Sisa’
In Sisa, a stranger with a wild, unfocused stare shows up in a provincial town occupied by the American military and is swiftly written off as unstable, dubbed “Sisa” after the Noli Me Tangere character. Hilda Koronel, marking her return to film after a 14-year absence, plays the woman with a steely control that makes clear the madness is a mask; what’s underneath is a calculated hunger to make the Americans who destroyed her family pay. Eugene Domingo matches her scene for scene as a mother teetering on collapse. Jun Robles Lana’s film, which premiered at Tallinn Black Nights in November 2025 before landing locally in March, doesn’t offer easy answers about how far revenge should go.
‘Hokum’
Ohm Bauman has a one-word answer for every eerie rumor thrown his way, and it’s the film’s title. In Hokum, Adam Scott plays the writer, holed up in the Irish countryside to finish a manuscript and scatter his late parents’ remains, brushing off talk of ghosts even as strange deaths pile up around him. Director Damian McCarthy told Collider he wanted a straightforward premise carried by a character with layers, and that’s what he gets: beneath Ohm’s rudeness to hotel staff and habit of drinking alone is a man who hasn’t let himself grieve.
‘The Drama’
One confession blurted out during a pre-wedding hangout is enough to threaten an entire engagement in Kristoffer Borgli’s hit, The Drama. Robert Pattinson and Zendaya play the Boston couple caught in the fallout, joined by Alana Haim and Mamoudou Athie, with horror director Ari Aster on as producer. Critics keep reaching for Eddington as a comparison given how far the film pushes its audience’s comfort, and several have called it Borgli’s harshest work to date. Critics are split on whether the shock value earns its place, but no one’s calling the film forgettable.
‘Midnight Girls’
Rather than sensationalize the lives of Filipina entertainers in Japan, known colloquially as “Japayukis,” Irene Villamor’s film sits with the tedium and toll of the work itself, the stronger of two features she put out this year (the other being The Loved One). Reviewers have pointed to its refusal to lean on melodrama or easy stereotypes, opting instead for a careful, unhurried look at what immigration actually costs the women living it. It’s a slower, quieter film than Villamor’s earlier work, and that’s exactly why it works.
‘Backrooms’
Before he ever picked up a film camera, Kane Parsons built an entire mythology out of a viral internet horror concept on YouTube. At 20, he’s turned it into a feature debut that more than justifies the leap, with a firm grip on pacing and dread that belies his age. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve commit fully to the disorientation of being trapped somewhere between spaces, and their performances are a big part of why the film feels real instead of gimmicky. Backrooms is certainly one of this year’s standout horror releases.
‘The Invite’
An ordinary dinner invitation to the neighbors upstairs turns into a stress test for a marriage that was already cracking in Olivia Wilde’s latest. She directs and co-stars opposite Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton in this English-language take on Cesc Gay’s Spanish film The People Upstairs, written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. The Invite ignited a bidding war after its Sundance premiere in January, eventually landing at A24, and critics have called it one of the few American remakes to outdo its original, with Norton’s near-silent standout scene coming up again and again in reviews.
‘First Light’
Corruption dressed up as progress runs through James J. Robinson’s debut feature, which was named Australia’s official selection for the 99th Academy Awards’ Best International Feature race. In this Australian and Philippine co-production, Ruby Ruiz plays a nun caring for the sick, including the failing mother of a construction magnate (Maricel Soriano) and her husband (Rez Cortez), while mentoring a young postulant (Kare Adea). First Light is a wider indictment of unchecked development across the country, using faith, both institutional and personal, to examine what gets sacrificed in the name of growth.
‘The Odyssey’
We called this the best film of Christopher Nolan’s career, even while flagging his familiar blind spot when it comes to writing women. Nolan doesn’t trim Homer’s story down to fit a runtime in The Odyssey; he leans further into its brutality than expected, especially compared to how gently he treated war in Dunkirk and Oppenheimer. Anne Hathaway’s Penelope breaks from the usual passive rendering of the character, giving the role real authority, and it won’t be surprising if she gets a nod for Best Supporting Actress. The film is massive in scope but stays tightly controlled, helped by sound design as strong as its visuals.
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’
Tom Holland turns in his best outing as Peter Parker yet, in what we’ve ranked among the strongest Spider-Man films to date. Director Destin Daniel Cretton steps in for Jon Watts, and while the buildup to the film’s big character reveal takes its time, the mystery keeps the momentum going. Spider-Man: Brand New Day pays off with a strong action sequence at the halfway mark and a third act that changes how you see everything that came before. Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers let Holland keep Peter’s humor intact without losing the weight of what the character is going through.
‘2 Valid IDs’
The bureaucratic loop that traps so many Filipinos, unable to get one ID without already having another, is the engine of Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan’s film, which took Cinemalaya’s Audience Choice Award, Best Actress for Marietta Subong (a.k.a. Pokwang), and a Special Jury Award. Rather than lean purely on the absurdity of the premise, the film knows when to let the frustration speak for itself and when to leave room for hope, a balance that is 2 Valid IDs’ strongest asset.
‘Status: Rejected’
Two elderly women stumble through the strange territory of late-in-life romance and social media in Vahn Leinard Pascual’s first-ever feature film. Ruby Ruiz’s character falls hard for a retired serviceman she meets online, using a beauty filter to hide her age, all while wishing she weren’t such a financial strain on her daughter (Alessandra de Rossi). Beverly Salviejo plays her closest confidante through it all. Ruiz shared Cinemalaya’s Best Actress prize with Subong, and Status: Rejected also picked up the NETPAC Award, a special citation for outstanding features and shorts. Pascual writes his leads with such tenderness despite the thorniness of the film’s theme, colonial fantasy.
‘Mag-iina’
Giancarlo Abrahan walked away from Cinemalaya with six wins: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Original Music Score, Best Production Design, Best Screenplay for writer Guelan Varela-Luarca, and Best Supporting Actor for Lucas Andalio, making Mag-iina the festival’s clear standout. It’s not an easy watch for everyone given how much ground it covers — grief, love, legacy, filial duty, national identity — but it never feels overstuffed.
‘58th’
Carl Joseph Papa sets aside the urban fantasy stories his rotoscoping style usually serves to confront something real: the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre. The docu-drama 58th follows photojournalist Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay (Ricky Davao), whose remains were never found, through the memories of his daughter Reynafe “Nenen” Momay-Castillo (Glaiza de Castro). The animated technique fills in what archival footage can’t, the moments no camera caught, making a well-documented tragedy feel newly personal in one of this year’s standout films. If the Film Academy of the Philippines plays its cards right, it might even land a Best Documentary nod in the 2027 Oscars.
‘Forgotten Island’
It feels early to call an animated release one of the year’s best before the year’s even over, but Forgotten Island, from directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, has earned the claim. There’s a good reason it opened with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100. The DreamWorks film knows how to handle Filipino culture with genuine care instead of flattening it into stereotypes, paired with the studio’s strongest animation and a hard-hitting story about friendship and purpose.
Frequently Asked Questions
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey crossed $1 billion worldwide in August, becoming his first billion-dollar release since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. The film also became the highest-grossing IMAX release in history, with the format contributing over $250 million to its total.
Yes, Spider-Man: Brand New Day posted the biggest domestic opening weekend in box office history, surpassing Avengers: Endgame, and crossed $1 billion globally in six days, the second-fastest film ever to reach that milestone. It remains the year’s top earner.
Yes, made on a reported $10 million budget, Backrooms posted the largest opening weekend for an original horror film and the biggest domestic debut in A24’s history. Its director, Kane Parsons, became the youngest filmmaker ever to have a film open at No. 1 in the U.S., at age 20.
H.E.R. and Liza Soberano voice best friends Jo and Raissa, with Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto, Dolly de Leon, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, and Lea Salonga rounding out the cast. It’s directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado and was released by Universal Pictures on September 23, 2026 in the Philippines.
Not yet. First Light was selected as Australia’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. This is a country’s chosen entry for consideration, not a confirmed nomination; the Academy announces its shortlist and nominees separately a few months before the ceremony.
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