{"id":152523,"date":"2025-10-30T02:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/152523\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T02:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:18:13","slug":"coming-of-age-comedy-i-have-to-f-lands-at-tokyo-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/152523\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming-of-Age Comedy ‘I Have to F—‘ Lands at Tokyo Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAndrea Benjamin Manenti\u2019s debut feature \u201cI Have to Fuck Before the World Ends<\/a>,\u201d a cross-cultural coming-of-age comedy set between Italy and the Philippines, is seeking financing and animation partners at the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film follows Ren, a 16-year-old Filipino-Italian teenager trapped in his mother Mia\u2019s possessive love, who must break free during a three-day Filipino wake as Typhoon Edith approaches Manila. When news arrives that Mia\u2019s mother Moini is dying in the Philippines, mother and son return to Manila, where Ren finds himself enchanted by Jolina, his cousins\u2019 babysitter, and coached in the art of love by his eccentric cousin Monique. As Typhoon Edith nears and family dysfunction brews, Ren must claim his independence.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project blends live action and animation, reinventing archetypes of lost innocence and discovering one\u2019s roots within the rarely seen setting of a Filipino wake in Italian cinema.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m aiming for a film that\u2019s tender and punk at once: a portrait of the awkward, wondrous attempts to connect with others; a hybrid, cross-cultural cinema that speaks to second- and third-generation audiences caught between two distant worlds,\u201d Manenti tells Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project is structured as a co-production between four countries \u2013 two in Asia and two in Europe \u2013 with Italy\u2019s Volos Films and the Philippines\u2019 Epicmedia already attached. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSince the signature of the coproduction treaty between Italy and Japan, we feel there are many more opportunities for collaboration between Italy and Asia, and the TIFFCOM<\/a> market has been instrumental in fostering these partnerships, so it makes much sense for us to be here at this stage,\u201d producer Stefano Centini of Volos Films Italia tells Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project recently won the Development Award for Outstanding Film Project at MIA Rome, where it received its first industry pitch. \u201cThe reception has been overwhelmingly warm so far,\u201d says Manenti, who co-wrote the script with Rossella Inglese and Antonio La Camera. Filipino editor Carlo Francisco Manatad, whose work as both editor and director Centini says he admires deeply, is attached to the project.<\/p>\n

\n\tManenti wrote the film following his mother Edith\u2019s death. \u201cI went through a private \u2018end of the world\u2019 that demanded to be faced. Perhaps the only way I found to cross it was by writing a story within it: a comedy about my mother\u2019s morbid devotion to me, about dysfunctional families, and about those clumsy yet wondrous attempts to rebuild relationships,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project previously participated in Milano Film Network\u2019s InProgress Lab in 2023, where Manenti met Carlo Hintermann \u2013 first a mentor, now a creative lead and producer \u2013 who subsequently brought in producers Centini and Serena Alfieri from Volos Films. \u201cThe strength of this team is its culture of care: the film is growing as a collective creative process while remaining deeply personal,\u201d Manenti says.<\/p>\n

\n\tCentini praises the energy of the new generation of Italian filmmakers. \u201cThere is a revived energy in these young creators which reminds me a lot of my previous experience in Asia, especially in the Philippines, for the mutual care and collective will to create something which is inspiring and moving at the same time,\u201d he says. \u201cWorking with Epicmedia, our Filipino co-producer who shares our ideals of co-production, was the most natural for the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tManenti, who also works as a director of photography collaborating with Italy\u2019s new wave filmmakers, speaks to the collaborative spirit of his generation. \u201cThere is real sharing; we are first and foremost a group of people who respect and care for one another, far from toxic forms of competition; we are building an ecosystem that, in the long run, will be our strength,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe team aims to close financing in 2026 and begin production in 2027, with plans for a research trip to the Philippines and casting for the protagonist scheduled for next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrea Benjamin Manenti\u2019s debut feature \u201cI Have to Fuck Before the World Ends,\u201d a cross-cultural coming-of-age comedy set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,89234,19,17,327,89235,87546,37341],"class_list":{"0":"post-152523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-i-have-to-fuck-before-the-world-ends","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-tiffcom","15":"tag-tokyo-gap-financing-market","16":"tag-tokyo-international-film-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115460722088454146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}