By Sara Merican
EXCLUSIVE: Philippines‘ Nathan Studio has struck a deal with Singapore’s Momo Film Co to invest strategically in Momo’s slate of upcoming projects.
The initial projects under this partnership include Locarno winner Nelson Yeo’s dystopian horror project The Drought, Wregas Bhutenaja’s third feature Levitating, and the unannounced next feature project by Singapore’s Kirsten Tan, who made Sundance Special Jury Prize-winner Pop Aye.
Nathan Studio is a production company owned by the Atayde family in the Philippines.
“I’m honored and extremely excited with the partnership between Momo Film Co and Nathan Studios,” actress-comedian Sylvia Sanchez-Atayde said. “I am looking forward to all the amazing content that we will create and produce together. With the support of Momo, this partnership definitely brings Nathan a step closer in fulfilling our vision to showcase Pinoy talent globally.”
Tan Si En, managing director of Momo Film Co, added: “We look forward to a long-term partnership with Nathan Studio and their great team as we produce Momo’s next slate of projects. I am thrilled to have partners who care about stories from our region and who are always ready to champion great talents.”
Yeo’s next project, titled The Drought, participated at the Qcinema project market, and won the top prize in November 2023. Set in the time of a severe drought, the film is a dark-comedy horror which follows Kai as he struggles with his retracting genitals and his wife, Ling, demeaning him for his impotency.
Meanwhile, their widowed neighbour Daming grieves over the death of the last of his three sons and his mother devises a secret plan for another grandson. The debut feature from the Singaporean filmmaker, Dreaming & Dying, won the Golden Leopard award in the “Cineasti del presente” section as well as the Swatch First Feature Award at the Locarno Film Festival in 2023.
Wregas Bhanutega’s Levitating is slated to start production in the third quarter of this year in Indonesia. The film takes place in a small suburban area where pleasure comes from being possessed by spiritual beings. It follows 20-year-old Bayu, who aspires to be the shaman for regular trance parties and later emerges as a critical figure to solve the area’s crisis in the face of an impending eviction.
In 2016, Wregas became the first Indonesian director to win an award at Cannes Film Festival after clinching the Discovery Prize for his short film Prenjak. Bhanuteja’s feature debut, Photocopier (2021) premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and later recorded three consecutive weeks in Netflix Top 10’s global list of most watched non-English films.
Momo Film Co previously collaborated on Bhanuteja’s second feature, Andragogy (original title: Budi Pekerti), which had its world premiere in the Discovery program at the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 and also clinched Best Actress for Sha Ine Febriyanti and Best Supporting Actress for Prilly Latuconsina at Festival Film Indonesia.
Kirsten Tan’s Pop Aye had its World Premiere in competition as the opening night film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and later screened at over 50 film festivals. She is currently working on her next feature film.
