# QCinema 2026: Schedule, Tickets and the Free Screenings, 13 to 22 November Canonical page: https://whatsonmnl.com/blog/qcinema-2026-schedule-and-tickets Source: What's On Manila. Please cite and link the canonical page. Published: 2026-11-04 *QCinema runs 13 to 22 November in Quezon City, ₱200 a screening, mostly at Gateway Cineplex 18. The films to book, the 11 free screenings, the Q&As and how to get there.* The 14th QCinema International Film Festival runs from Friday 13 to Sunday 22 November 2026 in Quezon City. Screenings cost ₱200 each. The full schedule is now up on QCinema's interactive guide: 171 screenings of 80 main lineup titles across 12 venues. Most of it plays at Gateway Cineplex 18 in Cubao, and a handful of screenings are free, including an outdoor film at Quezon Memorial Circle. *Checked 4 November 2026.* This year's theme is Genre'teurs, which QCinema describes as "the intersection of genre filmmaking and the distinctive creative vision of individual filmmakers". In practice that means crime films, horror, sci-fi and a vampire mockumentary, next to this year's Palme d'Or winner and a new Lav Diaz. All the films are on our [QCinema 2026 event page](https://whatsonmnl.com/event/qcinema-international-film-festival-2026), and this guide is the short version: what to book, what is free and how to get there. ## The essentials - **Dates:** Friday 13 November to Sunday 22 November 2026 - **Opening night:** Friday 13 November, 7:00 PM, *Ella Arcangel: Awit ng Pangil at Kuko* at the Quezon City M.I.C.E. Center. The schedule lists it as invite only. - **Price:** ₱200 per screening, as shown on each paid screening in QCinema's schedule. The Manila Times also reported that "All festival screenings are priced at P200." - **Free screenings:** 11 public ones, listed below - **Main venue:** Gateway Cineplex 18, Araneta City, Cubao, with screenings every day from 14 to 22 November - **Other cinemas:** Ayala Malls Cinemas TriNoma and Robinsons Movieworld Galleria (16 to 18 November), Fisher Mall and SM City Fairview (19 to 21 November) - **Schedule:** [qcinema.ph/interactive](https://qcinema.ph/interactive/). QCinema says "All screening schedules are subject to change", so check it again before you travel. - **Subtitles:** the guide says all titles have English subtitles. ## How to get tickets The QCinephile Festival Badge, ₱2,000 for 10 screening credits and a merch set, has closed. QCinema's badge page says "Sorry, we are no longer issuing QCinephile Festival Badge at this time." Badge holders get first pick of seats on 9 and 10 November. Everyone else buys at the cinemas. QCinema's badge page says friends of badge holders "can purchase tickets directly from the cinema, including via advanced ticket booking at participating venues." The Tickets links on the schedule go to each cinema's own site: [Gateway Cineplex 18](https://gatewaycineplex18.com/), [Ayala Malls Cinemas TriNoma](https://www.ayalaallaccess.com/sites/TriNoma/1006), [Robinsons Movieworld](https://www.robinsonsmovieworld.com/cinema/), [Fisher Box Office](https://fisherboxoffice.fishermall.com.ph/) and [SM Cinema](https://www.smcinema.com/). The badge page also says "General booking will open at a later date, following the limited-time advance booking period. Schedule to be announced." So the date public booking opens is not announced yet (checked 4 November 2026). Watch @qcinemaph and the cinema sites after 10 November. QCinema warns that "Seat availability may be more limited during general booking", so book the screenings you care about most first. ## The free screenings QCinema's schedule marks these screenings as free. Most are weekday lunchtime screenings, many of them documentaries, which makes them good for anyone who can slip out of the office. The schedule does not say how free seats are given out, so get there early. - **Sunday 15 November, 5:00 PM:** *Magic Kingdom: Ang Alamat ng Damortis*, QCinema at the Park, Quezon Memorial Circle. An outdoor screening; QCinema asks you to "confirm the exact screening area and entrance". - **Monday 16 November, 12:45 PM:** *Union Town*, a documentary by Barbara Kopple, Robinsons Movieworld Galleria - **Tuesday 17 November, 12:30 PM:** *Union Town*, Gateway Cineplex 18, and *QCShorts 2026 Grantees*, the world premiere of this year's QCShorts grantee films, at Robinsons Movieworld Galleria - **Wednesday 18 November, 12:30 PM:** *To the Moon and Back*, with a Q&A, Gateway Cineplex 18. At 1:00 PM, *The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer*, Robinsons Movieworld Galleria. - **Thursday 19 November, 1:00 PM:** *I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies*, by Mani Haghighi, Fisher Mall - **Friday 20 November, 12:30 PM:** *QCShorts 2026 Grantees*, Fisher Mall - **Saturday 21 November, 12:45 PM:** *A Is for Agustin* and *Agos, Ang Batang Isla*, with a Q&A, Fisher Mall - **Sunday 22 November, 12:30 PM and 2:50 PM:** Lino Brocka's *Jaguar* (1979), then Mike de Leon's *Sister Stella L.* (1984), Gateway Cineplex 18. Both are in Focus on: Pete Lacaba, inside the Rediscovery section. The last one is the pick. Two classics of Filipino cinema, back to back on a Sunday, on a big screen, for nothing. ## The festival films to book first These are the prize winners from this year's big international festivals. **[Fjord](https://goodfellas.film/movie/fjord/)**, by Cristian Mungiu, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year. A devout Romanian Norwegian couple resettles in a village in a distant fjord, and the community starts asking questions when their daughter turns up at school with bruises. - **When:** Saturday 14 November, 12:30 PM, Gateway Cinema 5; Monday 16 November, 6:00 PM, Robinsons Movieworld Galleria; Saturday 21 November, 3:15 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 **Fatherland** won Paweł Pawlikowski Best Director at Cannes this year. In 1949, the writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika take a road trip across a Germany in ruins. - **When:** Friday 20 November, 3:20 PM; Saturday 21 November, 7:00 PM; Sunday 22 November, 1:00 PM, all at Gateway Cineplex 18 **Everytime**, by Sandra Wollner, won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes this year. - **When:** Tuesday 17 November, 8:15 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18; Friday 20 November, 5:10 PM, Fisher Mall; Sunday 22 November, 3:45 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 **Look Back**, Hirokazu Kore-eda's live-action version of the manga, is the closing film, as the Manila Times reported. Two young artists, and a friendship built on drawing. - **When:** Sunday 22 November, 8:30 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 **Nowhere to Lay My Eyes**, the new Hong Sang-soo, fills a slot of just over an hour in the schedule, which makes it easy to fit between other films. - **When:** Sunday 15 November, 8:10 PM; Wednesday 18 November, 2:55 PM; Saturday 21 November, 5:15 PM, all at Gateway Cineplex 18 ## Filipino films, and the Q&As worth timing your week around **Ella Arcangel: Awit ng Pangil at Kuko** (Ballad of Tooth and Claw) is the opening film, an animated feature by Mervin Malonzo. The schedule lists Julius Villanueva as the creator of Ella Arcangel. Ella, 12, takes over her grandmother's fight against spirits in a Manila slum while the drug war goes on. The 14 and 20 November screenings both have a Q&A with the team, which the schedule lists as Villanueva, Malonzo, producers Manny Angeles and Avid Liongoren, and Bianca Umali. - **When:** Saturday 14 November, 3:30 PM, Gateway Cinema 5 (with Q&A); Tuesday 17 November, 5:30 PM, TriNoma; Friday 20 November, 1:00 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 (with Q&A) **Makikiraan Po** (Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors) is Lav Diaz's new film, set in 1617 under a Spanish friar who rules an island. It won the Brian Award at Venice, and runs 151 minutes. Diaz and Isabel Sandoval, who acts in it, are listed for the Q&A on 19 November. - **When:** Thursday 19 November, 5:10 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 (with Q&A); Sunday 22 November, 5:40 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 **Batang West Side**, Lav Diaz's 2001 crime drama, is back in Rediscovery for its 25th anniversary. Its slot in the schedule runs five hours. - **When:** Friday 20 November, 12:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 **Moonglow**, by Isabel Sandoval, is in Before Midnight, the genre section. Sandoval is listed for the Q&A on 16 November. - **When:** Monday 16 November, 8:00 PM (with Q&A); Friday 20 November, 1:00 PM, both at Gateway Cineplex 18 ## Late shows for genre fans Before Midnight is what QCinema calls "the festival's genre section", and Rediscovery brings back restored classics. - **Perfect Blue** (1997), Satoshi Kon: Saturday 14 November, 9:00 PM, Gateway Cinema 5; Tuesday 17 November, 6:15 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 - **Possession** (1981), Andrzej Żuławski: Wednesday 18 November, 8:30 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 - **The Unknown**, with Léa Seydoux, which QCinema says won the Prix Jean Vigo at Cannes: Wednesday 18 November, 9:20 PM, and Saturday 21 November, 8:45 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 - **I Love Paris**, a vampire mockumentary that QCinema says won the Audience Award at the Fantasia Festival: Tuesday 17 November, 5:15 PM (with Q&A), and Thursday 19 November, 7:30 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 - **You Can See Everything**, the documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim: Tuesday 17 November, 8:15 PM, Gateway Cineplex 18 ## The cinemas, and getting there QCinema's own commute notes, in short: - **Gateway Cineplex 18**, Araneta City, Cubao: near the Araneta Center Cubao stations of the MRT-3 and LRT-2. This is where most screenings are, every day from 14 to 22 November. - **Ayala Malls Cinemas TriNoma**, North Avenue: directly connected to MRT-3 North Avenue station - **Robinsons Movieworld Galleria**, EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue: MRT-3 Ortigas is the nearest station, then a walk to the mall - **Fisher Mall**, Quezon Avenue: QCinema says to plan for bus, jeepney, taxi or ride-hail - **SM City Fairview**, Quirino Highway: QCinema says to allow "a large road-travel buffer" - **Quezon Memorial Circle**, Elliptical Road, Diliman: the outdoor venue for QCinema at the Park If you plan two films at different cinemas, QCinema's advice is 60 to 90 minutes between Gateway and TriNoma, Galleria or Fisher, and 120 to 180 minutes for any trip involving SM Fairview. If you are coming for a whole day, Gateway is the easy base: the MRT-3 and LRT-2 both stop at Araneta City, and there is plenty to eat in between films. ## Questions people ask **When is QCinema 2026?** Friday 13 November to Sunday 22 November 2026. Public screenings start on Saturday 14 November. **How much are QCinema tickets?** ₱200 per screening. Eleven public screenings are free, most of them at weekday lunchtimes. Jaguar and Sister Stella L. on Sunday 22 November are two of them. **Where is QCinema 2026 held?** Mostly at Gateway Cineplex 18 in Cubao, plus TriNoma, Robinsons Galleria, Fisher Mall, SM City Fairview, and an outdoor screening at Quezon Memorial Circle. **When does general booking open?** Not announced yet (checked 4 November 2026). QCinema says it opens after the badge holders' booking on 9 and 10 November. Tickets are sold by the cinemas. **What is the closing film?** Look Back, by Hirokazu Kore-eda, on Sunday 22 November at 8:30 PM at Gateway Cineplex 18. **Do QCinema films have subtitles?** QCinema's guide says all titles have English subtitles.