Philippine cinema is one hundred years old in 2019, dating from the premiere screening of José Nepomuceno's feature film, Dalagang Bukid (Country Maiden), in Manila in 1919. It would be a few years older, if we are to count other firsts – the production of the first narrative features on national hero José Rizal by Americans in close collaboration with Filipino theatre troupes in 1912; the establishment of the first Filipino-owned film company, Nepomuceno's Malayan Movies, in 1917, 20 years after the arrival of motion picture in Manila; or the shooting and screening in Cebu of the first newsreel by Nepomuceno in 1918. From 1919 onward, film production by native Filipinos like Vicente Salumbides, Carmen Concha and Julian Manansala continued to grow, with silent cinema coming to a close when Nepomuceno produced the first sound film, PUNYAL NA GINTO (Golden Dagger), in 1932.

The coming of sound encouraged the foundation of several film studios, including Filippine Films, Parlatone Hispano-Filipino, Excelsior Pictures and X’Otic Films. After World War II, a more clearly defined studio system emerged and strengthened the film industry by managing their own lots and sound stages, contracting artists, technicians, and publicists, building up their stable of stars and producing genre film staples alongside a few ‘prestige’ projects. Owing mainly to the productions of the ‘big three’ studios (Sampaguita Pictures, Premiere Productions and LVN Pictures), observers marked the decade of the 1950s as the ‘golden age’ of Filipino genre cinema (see Arriola, this volume, Chapter 2).