You’ve probably already seen Filipino animation. You just weren’t aware it was Filipino. For years, the country’s animators have been part of the machinery behind global hits, contributing to films that traveled the world while their own stories stayed delayed or unrealized. But now, the gap between capability and visibility is finally narrowing.

 

Philippine animation has long existed in the margins of the frame because it is present in movement, yet remains absent in ownership. It has always lived in the in-betweens—seen in the cleaned-up lines, the finished renders, the invisible polish behind some of Hollywood’s biggest films. But invisibility has a limit.

 

The projects arriving in 2026 mark a turning point—from participation to ownership, from anonymity to voice. Here is what's coming, and why they’re worth paying attention to.

 

Layout by Marcus Aquino

 

Sun Chaser

True to its name, “Sun Chaser” has been building toward something big, and it’s almost there! The animated series, produced by Philippines-based Toon City Animation, Hit Animations, and PlayLab, and in co-production with Liza Soberano's Funny Face Films, took home the Animation du Monde Prize at the MIFA market in France in 2025 before it even had a full audience. 

 

The series is the brainchild of Oscar-nominated animator Bobby Pontillas and writer Bernard Badion, and marks a rare creative homecoming—a Filipino story, built by Filipino talent, produced on Filipino soil. “Sun Chaser” centers around Jordan Santos (voiced by Manny Jacinto), a self-absorbed teenager whose plans for a carefree summer fall apart fast when an ancient icy villain attacks his grandmother's island in the Philippines. 

 

To protect his family, Jordan steps up as the unlikely pilot of the Sun Chaser: a legendary, sun-powered vessel,  setting sail across a mythic ocean realm with his younger cousins in tow. What follows is a high-stakes voyage rooted in Philippine folklore and indigenous tradition.

 

Beyond its stunning premise, “Sun Chaser” carries a cast worth paying attention to—Liza Soberano, Eugene Cordero, Charo Santos, and Dingdong Dantes among them. It's heading to the world's biggest animation stage this June, and the rest of the world is about to find out what Filipino animation has always been capable of.

 

Layout by Kamille Castillo

 

Forgotten Island

“Forgotten Island” begins where many Filipino stories do: with friendship and the fear of being left behind. The project is the first DreamWorks Animation feature film centered entirely on Filipino culture, led by Director Joel Crawford, co-director and writer Januel Mercado, along with the Oscar-nominated team behind “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” DreamWorks announced the film in April 2025, with a theatrical release set for September 25, 2026 via Universal Pictures.

 

The story is set in 1990s Philippines, where best friends Jo (voiced by H.E.R.)  and Raissa (voiced by Liza Soberano) are days away from a permanent goodbye. Raissa is leaving for college in the U.S.; Jo is staying. On their last night together, they fall through a portal into Nakali, a world straight out of the stories their families used to tell—where a clumsy weredog named Raww (voiced by Dave Franco) joins them, Tikbalangs roam, and a soul-stealing Manananggal (voiced by Lea Salonga) lurks in the dark. Eventually, the two friends realize the catch: the longer they stay, the more their memories fade—including those of each other.

 

With a stacked cast featuring Manny Jacinto and Jenny Slate, Forgotten Island will explore the bittersweet nature of growing up, and the sacredness of shared history (inspired by the Filipino tradition of Sandugo). For a generation of Filipinos who grew up waiting for their mythology to mean something on a screen this big, it's almost time.

 

Layout by Zoie Sabanal

 

Hexed

Disney Animation has been casting a lot of sequels lately, and “Hexed” is the spell-breaker as the  animation studio’s first original film since “Wish” in 2023. “Hexed” marks a significant point for many local animators seeking to tell their story on an international stage as the first film in the studio's canon to be co-directed by a Filipino-American woman. Josie Trinidad helms the project alongside directors Jason Hand and Fawn Veerasunthorn, with Jared Bush serving as executive producer. It opens in theaters on November 25, 2026.

 

The story follows Billie Doe (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), a restless teenager who turns out to be a witch. When her powers surface and promptly spiral out of control, she and her mother Alice (voiced by Rashida Jones) are yanked out of their quiet lives and dropped into Hexe, a secret world of witches hiding under their noses the whole time. Getting home means the two of them actually have to work together, and between navigating a hidden magical society and a family mystery neither of them saw coming, they might have to figure each other out first.

 

“Hexed” sits squarely in the tradition of mother-daughter stories told through fantasy, where the real magic is just learning how to understand each other. 

 

Layout by Antoine Tanag

 

ZsaZsa Zaturnnah vs. the Amazonistas of Planet X

Six years in the making, “ZsaZsa Zaturnnah vs. the Amazonistas of Planet X” is proof that some stories refuse to be rushed. Produced by Rocketsheep Studio, the film is directed by Avid Liongoren and co-written by Carlo Vergara, the original creator of the beloved character ZsaZsa Zaturnnah. After a long production journey sustained by grassroots support, local grants, and eventual co-production partnerships with French producer Franck Priot of Paris-based Ghosts City Films, ZsaZsa Zaturnnah is finally ready to conquer not just the Philippines, but the whole world.

 

The story follows Ada (voiced by Phi Palmos), a shy, gay beautician in a small Philippine town who has quietly given up on love, until a magical meteorite crashes through his roof which he swallows, shouting "Zaturnnah!" This transforms him into a powerful, voluptuous superheroine (voiced by Adrienne Vergara), who is suddenly tasked with defending Earth from the Amazonistas, a band of intergalactic female invaders led by Queen Feminah, who have turned every man on their home planet into pigs. 

 

Twenty years after the creation of the original comic—where ZsaZsa Zaturnnah first dared Filipino audiences to see themselves differently, she's back, and this time, the whole world is watching.

 

Layout by Kij Cabardo

 

Ella Arcangel: Awit ng Pangil at Kuko

Not all animated films are made for children, and “Ella Arcangel: Awit ng Pangil at Kuko” makes no pretense of being one. Produced by GMA Pictures in collaboration with Twenty Manila and Rocketsheep Studio, the film is directed by National Book Awardee Mervin Malonzo and is based on Julius Villanueva's 2017 horror-fantasy komik “Ella Arcangel.” Following a teaser reveal at Komikon Grande in late 2025 and a development grant from the Film Development Council of the Philippines, the film is slated for a nationwide theatrical release in 2026.

 

Set in the fictional slums of Barangay Masikap in Manila, the story follows Ella, a 12-year-old mambabarang who inherits her grandmother's role as community protector. While she fends off entities from Philippine mythology, including the soul-eating Pangil, the film is quick to make one thing clear—the supernatural is not the only threat in her neighborhood. As the government's brutal drug war closes in around her, Ella is forced to navigate a world where human cruelty and mythic monstrosity start to look the same, and where the question of who the real monsters are has no clear answer.

 

What the project understands, and what makes it so urgent, is that horror does not need to be invented in a country already living inside one. It hits cinemas in 2026, and it will be difficult to look away.

 

Layout by Zed Roxas

 

The Lovers

What does it mean to make something outside the system entirely? For Studio Heartbreak, it meant a crowdfunding platform, three years of work, and over $410,000 raised from more than 7,000 people who believed in a story before it had a single frame to show. The result is “The Lovers,” a 12-minute short film directed by Sophia Paez and A.S. Siopao, set for release in Summer 2026.

 

In an alternate-reality Manila where mythical creatures move through the city like anyone else, the story follows Sara Lim Baylon (voiced by Vanille Velasquez), a reluctant seafood chef in Binondo holding her late father's restaurant together by sheer will. When she is tasked with preparing a sirena as the centerpiece for the Governor's inauguration dinner, something changes, and Sara finds herself caught in a forbidden romance with the very creature she is supposed to serve.

 

The Lovers is as lush and atmospheric as the Binondo it inhabits. It tells its story in Taglish and centers a sapphic romance with the same weight and care that the genre rarely affords. 

 

From sailing across the seas to a Sailor Moon-esque transformation after eating a meteor, Filipino animation is finally exhibiting its heritage one frame at a time. It would be easy to call this a breakthrough, but that risks oversimplifying what’s actually happening. Industries don’t change overnight, and visibility does not always translate into control. 

 

Regardless, something real is shifting, because these projects, whether backed by major studios or built from scratch, push against the idea that Filipino animation belongs in the background, bringing forth the confirmation that Filipino animation does not need to translate itself in order to simply exist.

 

Invisibility, in this case, was never a lack of talent—it was all just a matter of who was allowed to be seen.