MANIE E. MAGBANUA, JR.
Short Profile (updated 2025)

Manuel E. Magbanua, Jr. Born and raised in Egaña Sibalom, Antique he completed his primary and secondary education at St. Anthony’s College from 1982 to 1993 and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering at Adamson University in 1998. He got his engineering license that same year. He started his exposure in TV production as a Soundman and editor for ABS-CBN Foundation from 2000 to 2006. In 2004, he met the late music icon Francis Magalona and together they put up Filipino Pictures, Inc. 

From being a Soundman and editor, he started a career as a cinematographer after taking a Cinematography workshop at UP Film Institute. His first full-length cinematography work in “Walang Hanggang Paalam” received a nomination for Best Cinematography at the 2010 Entertainment Press Awards. He worked as a freelance lighting director for ABS-CBN TV Series from 2011 to 2012. He is behind the creative team as an associate producer, technical director, and cinematographer of the multi-awarded TV documentary “STORYLINE” in ABS-CBN and ANC which won the best documentary awards at the New York Film Festival for TV and 4-times Gawad Tanglaw winner for Best TV Documentary. He had been associated with The Extra Mile Productions which produces award-winning documentaries and content for The National Geographic and other online platforms as Soundman and editor. Their online short features, documentaries, and video essays series “Know Your North” produced by Victory Liner, Inc. have won numerous awards at the prestigious Adobo Design Awards Asia for two consecutive years (2018-2019).

As a way of giving back to his beloved hometown, he founded Sineray-a which pioneered Kinaray-a Filmmaking in Antique. He directed Antique’s first music video for its provincial and tourism theme song, “Antique Banwa Nga Hamili” and “Kruuhaayy! Katahum Kang Antique” in 2006. The flourishing of Original Kinaray-a Music (OKM) during that time inspired him to do his first short film “HANDUM” (Dream) in 2010 which was awarded Rotary Club’s Choice Award at the 2nd Lino Brocka Political Film and New Media Festival of that same year and Nominated for Best Short Film in the 34th Gawad Urian in 2011. His second Kinaray-a film “DUMUT” (Grudge) is part of “Kuwentong-Bayan” – a collection of 20 socio-economic-themed short films he produced under his production outfit Filipino Pictures in partnership with the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 2012. His latest short film “UGBOS KA BAYABAS” is one of the films for the National Center for Culture and the Arts and Negros Cultural Foundation Production of a Sine Halaga short film collection. HANDUM and DUMUT screenplays were released in book form, the first Kinaray-a screenplays ever written and published.

Under his production house, Filipino Pictures, which he manages together with his wife Bernice Ilagan-Magbanua, he organizes and facilitates the WRITE, SHOOT, CUT, PLAY Basic Filmmaking Workshop, which has already produced 12 batches since 2008. Many of its graduates are prominent names in the filmmaking industry.

His advocacy is to write and shoot all his (personal) films in Kinaray-a and to be able to share his 22 years of TV and film production experience with aspiring Antiqueño filmmakers, unroot more Kinaray-a stories, and share it with a wider audience through motion pictures.

Nominations:

“Handum” (2010) –  Best Short Film, 34th Gawad Urian Awards (2011)
“Walang Hanggang Paalam” (2009) – Best Cinematography, Entertainment Press Awards 2010