Directing

Martika Ramirez Escobar

Martika Ramirez Escobar is a filmmaker-cinematographer based in Manila. Most of her works are reflections on her relationship with cinema. After she graduated with honors from the University of the Philippines, her thesis film competed at the 19th Busan International Film Festival. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents Tokyo, Asian Film Academy, and is a recipient of the Purin Pictures Film Fund.

Known For

Open Endings

Open Endings · 2026

MovieDramaComedy

Four queer women in their 30s who are exes-turned-best-friends navigate adulthood, love, friendship, chosen families, and everything in between.

Henry

MovieDramaRomance

Teenager Henry begins longing for another life when he visits a mansion's construction site to seek compensation for his older brother's work injury.

Status: Rejected

Status: Rejected · 2026

Status: Rejected

MovieDramaComedy

Longing for love and the promise of a better life, a grandmother finds herself swept into an unexpected online romance that challenges her sense of worth, family, and the dreams she refuses to let go of.

Extra Festive

Extra Festive · 2024

A middle-aged gay couple resign themselves to a cheap motel in the midst of Manila's Christmas nighttime rush. Later, a lost present is found in the hands of a younger, mysterious stranger.

Where is the Lie?

Where is the Lie? · 2023

Where is the Lie?

When a hopeless romantic transwoman matches with a seemingly perfect guy on a dating app, her chance at love takes a dark turn when he ghosts her, unraveling an intricate web of deceit, lies, and catfishing orchestrated by a sociopathic mastermind.

Alaga

Gloria, a middle-aged seamstress, and her son Bayani live in the House, a structure in constant decay. As Bayani’s birthday approaches, mother, son, and the House are forced to confront their innermost desires.

Yelo

In the cramped heat of a thrift shop in Cubao, the air is thick with the unspoken desires of Jessa and Candy. But when a foreigner arrives with the promise of America, their lives are led astray.

Processions

Processions · 2017

The news of Patricia’s sudden death disrupts the lives of her friends. After several years apart, they have to meet back together to pay their last respects to their dearly departed.

Filmography

Sort

Open Endings

Open Endings · 2026

MovieDramaComedy

Four queer women in their 30s who are exes-turned-best-friends navigate adulthood, love, friendship, chosen families, and everything in between.

Director of Photography

Henry

MovieDramaRomance

Teenager Henry begins longing for another life when he visits a mansion's construction site to seek compensation for his older brother's work injury.

Cinematography

Status: Rejected

Status: Rejected · 2026

Status: Rejected

MovieDramaComedy

Longing for love and the promise of a better life, a grandmother finds herself swept into an unexpected online romance that challenges her sense of worth, family, and the dreams she refuses to let go of.

Director of Photography

Extra Festive

Extra Festive · 2024

A middle-aged gay couple resign themselves to a cheap motel in the midst of Manila's Christmas nighttime rush. Later, a lost present is found in the hands of a younger, mysterious stranger.

Director of Photography

Where is the Lie?

Where is the Lie? · 2023

Where is the Lie?

When a hopeless romantic transwoman matches with a seemingly perfect guy on a dating app, her chance at love takes a dark turn when he ghosts her, unraveling an intricate web of deceit, lies, and catfishing orchestrated by a sociopathic mastermind.

Second Unit Director

Alaga

Gloria, a middle-aged seamstress, and her son Bayani live in the House, a structure in constant decay. As Bayani’s birthday approaches, mother, son, and the House are forced to confront their innermost desires.

Director of Photography

Yelo

In the cramped heat of a thrift shop in Cubao, the air is thick with the unspoken desires of Jessa and Candy. But when a foreigner arrives with the promise of America, their lives are led astray.

Director of Photography

Processions

Processions · 2017

The news of Patricia’s sudden death disrupts the lives of her friends. After several years apart, they have to meet back together to pay their last respects to their dearly departed.

Director of Photography

Tisoy

MovieDramaRomance

A university student learns that it is not so easy to borrow a library book. Martika Ramirez Escobar and Sari Estrada's segment in the anthology "Anatomiya ng Pag-Ibig."

Director

Quadrilaterals

Quadrilaterals · 2017

MovieDocumentaryFamily

A portrait of a family of Overseas Filipino Workers seen through the objects in their home.

Director

Living Things

Living Things · 2020

Kints and Charles have been together for almost a decade. One day, Kints wakes up and discovers that her lover has changed, literally. Although troubled at first, she eventually understands that what happened is a natural phenomenon. Through this, she is reminded that people change all the time and love can change people.

Writer

Stone Heart

Stone Heart · 2014

MovieComedyRomance

“Pusong Bato” (Stone Heart) is about Cinta Dela Cruz, a middle-aged faded actress who tries to relive and remember her glorious days as a movie star in the 1970s. She does this by watching films at home everyday until one day, during an earthquake; something breaks into her window and wakes her up from her Hollywood dream.

Writer

Hey, Hey, Take Care!

Hey, Hey, Take Care! · 2025

Hey, Hey, Take Care!

MovieDramaComedy

Grief-striken in urban poor’s hell, a child eager for viral fame and his beautiful, terminal-ill brother embark on a rescue mission to take back a beloved family jeepney in order to survive.

Director of Photography

Budang, Badidang, Bebang

Budang, Badidang, Bebang · 2025

Budang, Badidang, Bebang

Three childhood friends, all pregnant, had a serious conflict and must find a way to rebuild their friendship.

Creative Producer

Hando

A writer narrates the moral conundrums of the times.

Director

The Tigers of Infanta

The Tigers of Infanta · 2022

The Tigers of Infanta

MovieDramaMystery

Director of Photography

Leonor Will Never Die

Leonor Will Never Die · 2022

Leonor Will Never Die

MovieFantasyComedy

Fiction and reality blur when Leonor, a retired filmmaker, falls into a coma after a television lands on her head, compelling her to become the action hero of her unfinished screenplay.

Executive Producer

Arrows

A short film written and directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar.

Director

A Catholic Schoolgirl

A Catholic Schoolgirl · 2023

A Catholic Schoolgirl

A 15-year-old A-student defies the views of her all-girls Catholic school as she confronts her feelings for a school nun.

Director of Photography

MovieFantasyDrama

When an ongoing apocalypse halts the production of Gabby's new film, she escapes to see her artist friend Tona in La Union, a former booming beach town and strategic site for a US military base.

Producer

Dindo

Film Dindo, the son of a film editor in the 1970s, revisits the old workspace of his father and finds himself talking with the characters of a film.

Director

Don’t worry, we still hear you

Don’t worry, we still hear you · 2020

Don’t worry, we still hear you

A filmmaker reflects on the late film critic Alexis Tioseco’s wish list for Philippine Cinema.

Director

Puppy Love

Puppy Love · 2017

MovieDramaFantasy

A young girl on the brink of puberty wakes up one morning to find that her pet dog had escaped, leaving her with a wound in her vagina.

Cinematography

When This Is All Over

When This Is All Over · 2023

When This Is All Over

When a rich kid slacker meets a working class breadwinner, the two form an unlikely friendship in spite of their differences. With the pandemic and society bearing down on them, they fight back by throwing the biggest illegal rave the lockdown has ever seen.

Director of Photography