Bakunawa Fest (formerly Bakunawa Young Cinema) is the first fantastic & genre-based film, art & music festival based in The Philippines currently presented by Negros Museum and E Unlimited; and ran by volunteer filmmakers and artists. Bakunawa is a dragon-like creature in Philippine mythology that devoured moons. Because we are a genre-bending film fest, we want to flip the Bakunawa's role and we want it to instead symbolize the creative monsters inside us.

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Bakunawa Fest runs annually in one season - spread in fourth months - which became a hybrid festival resulting from the pandemic lockdowns. Bakunawa Fest is film camp and series of film workshops for first time young filmmakers that culminates into a competition - their final works are mostly genre films (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, folk, noir, folk, etc). Bakunawa Fest is an online and in-person festival (with competitive and curated sections), screening local and international films all making their Philippine Premiere. Bakunawa Fest ends its season run with Primetime Philippine Cable TV airing and Awards Show. 

The basic idea of Bakunawa is new visions, new voices. We support young promising filmmakers, artists & musicians who either have no access to expensive workshops and may not have the name/recognition to be programmed in festivals. Since our third edition, we have included a section that screens curated local and international selected films mainly for educational purposes. Most of our Bakunawa Fest's film camps are done as outrecah programs/workshops (they're mostly free and our participants are scholars paid for by the festival) and are hosted by different cities in the Philippines.

ONLINE FESTIVALS 2020 / 2021 / 2022
Because of the pandemic, we have temporarily migrated to mostly online screenings, but have started to conduct limited invitational screenings in 2023. 

[ Please note that we cannot fund filmmakers to come physically and we don't pay screening fees. ]

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