The best Phillip Salvador’s drama movies

Felix Yzagun Manalo is a sprawling historical epic that traces the origin of Iglesia Ni Cristo (The Church of Christ) which is established in the Philippines from its humble beginnings in 1914 through the present day.

Mobster Asiong Salonga (ER Ejercito) rules the mean streets of Manila with an iron fist—until he is betrayed by a trusted friend. Manila Kingpin is based on the story of the notorious Tondo, Manila, gang leader Nicasio “Asiong” Salonga, whose true-to-life accounts had been portrayed in several movie versions since 1961 (starring Joseph Estrada). It is also the first Filipino major film produced in black-and-white in the 21st century as well as the returning action genre movie. Before the film was shown, Tikoy Aguiluz requested the producers, through his lawyers, that his directorial credits in the film and promotional tools be removed because the final version of the film can no longer be described as his after the producers made a reedit, re-shoot and music mixing without his involvement. He also demanded that he be allowed to make a director's cut of the film.

The year before the Edsa revolt in a remote barrio, cult fanatics brutally kill a foreigner priest who administered the last rites to an alleged rebel summarily executed himself by the very group. In the city upon the toppling of the Marcos regime, an ex-priest leads a crew of political detainees in jubilation. After his release, he marries his human rights activist-girlfriend and decides to join a fact-finding mission that will bring him to the scene of the heinous crime a year ago. There the cultists continue to slaughter suspected communist rebels and terrorize the villagers. A native of the village is the ex-priest's old flame who turns out to have a seven-year-old son by him.

A groom takes his city bride to his hometown to settle in his father's house. Struck by her uncanny resemblance to his dead wife, the patriarch is driven to lust after his daughter-in-law. When things come to a head, a violent family quarrel ensues and leads to tragedy. A middle-aged spinster recounts the tale to reveal her identity and trace the downfall of the landowning clan trapped in the past.

Coring, a gay beautician, is left with a baby by his former ward, Dennis. The baby grows up thinking that Coring is his real father. Everything seems to be smooth until the kid's mother suddenly shows up to claim her son.

A scorned teenager gets revenge on the aging gigolo who took advantage of her while pursuing other women.

In this modern-day version of the biblical legend on Cain and Abel, strong-willed matriarch Señora Pina favors her younger son Ellis over the older Loren whom she blames for the death of her husband. Ellis grows up cowardly and spoiled while Loren becomes a responsible family man despite his increasing resentment towards his mother. What began as a sibling rivalry develops into a deep feud that would later escalate into a large-scale war - with all the mayhem and bloodshed.

At the heart of every Filipino film is the family, according to Adolfo B. Alix Jr. In his cool yet charged Mater Dolorosa, the actress Gina Alajar, who is very well known in the Philippines, plays a woman who dominates illegal activities in an old district of Manila. Her family's welfare has to be weighed against the interests of the criminal business she runs with her children.

A worker nicknamed Turing finds himself in a quandary when the printing press where he is hired as a casual is hit by a strike. As his wife badly needs medication after getting pregnant, he is forced to sign a waiver inhibiting him from joining any mass action in exchange for a wage advance from his employer. Left with no choice, he turns scab and is ostracized by his friends and colleagues. At the hospital where the wife undergoes treatment, she would not be released until all the bills have been fully paid. The situation further heads for the worse when the firm is finally shut down. Turing opts for a desperate move.

Poldo, a lowly security in a publishing firm, dreams to be rich. He becomes the personal bodyguard to his employer's son, Sonny, when he impresses the latter with his courage and skills during a quarrel where Poldo defended Sonny. Poldo gets a taste of his boss' carefree and extravagant lifestyle and thinks that he accepts him as a friend. In one of the nightclubs they frequent, Sonny is smitten by dancer Cristy and aggressively pursues her despite a warning from San Pedro, the movie director with whom Cristy has an affair. When they chance upon each other, Sonny and San Pedro fight. Poldo comes to his boss' rescue and guns down San Pedro. In subsequent circumstances, Poldo would soon arrive at a bitter realization. As he could not see in Sonny the benefactor that he pictured him to be, Poldo finds himself alone, abandoned and betrayed.

Filipino director Adolfo Alix Jr. returns to the Festival with this timely story of a couple caught up in Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs when their son goes missing.

Pastor Luis Aguila and his family are seemingly tested with their faith. Luis is an ex-convinct who is now the head of his church. Mildred, his wife, tries to hide her secret as she grapples between her family and church duties. Their youngest son Carlo wrestles with growing up and tying up his family together. All of them try to overcome these obstacles but things intensify when Pastor Aguila's daughter, Katrina defies her family when she falls in love with the mysterious Jigo.