Liryc Dela Cruz

Directing

Liryc Dela Cruz

Born 1992-01-15

Liryc Dela Cruz is an artist and independent filmmaker from Rome, Italy and Mindanao, Philippines.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

On Endings poster
NR

Filmmaker’s intimate statement from isolation, in which he reads letters from a mother longing for her son, whom she has not seen for four years.

On Endings

2020

On Endings poster
NR

Filmmaker’s intimate statement from isolation, in which he reads letters from a mother longing for her son, whom she has not seen for four years.

On Endings

2020

On Endings poster
NR

Filmmaker’s intimate statement from isolation, in which he reads letters from a mother longing for her son, whom she has not seen for four years.

On Endings

2020

A Brief Encounter poster
NR

Kath, an Italian-Filipino woman, works remotely as a digital content moderator in Genoa. When she learns that a colleague in the Philippines has taken his own life—crushed by the very job that fills her own days (the endless cataloging of beheadings, torture, live-streamed suicides, and child abuse)—she initially takes two days off, then extends her break, no longer convinced she can bring herself to return to her terminal. A massage appointment introduces her to Jenny, a Filipino woman who tends to people's bodies as a side job. That scheduled hour evolves into something more—an encounter neither woman expected. Each carrying her own burdens and losses, they finally find a way, together, to stop being invisible. The screen, once capable only of wounding them, now reflects a new image: a redemptive possibility for healing.

A Brief Encounter

2026

A Brief Encounter poster
NR

Kath, an Italian-Filipino woman, works remotely as a digital content moderator in Genoa. When she learns that a colleague in the Philippines has taken his own life—crushed by the very job that fills her own days (the endless cataloging of beheadings, torture, live-streamed suicides, and child abuse)—she initially takes two days off, then extends her break, no longer convinced she can bring herself to return to her terminal. A massage appointment introduces her to Jenny, a Filipino woman who tends to people's bodies as a side job. That scheduled hour evolves into something more—an encounter neither woman expected. Each carrying her own burdens and losses, they finally find a way, together, to stop being invisible. The screen, once capable only of wounding them, now reflects a new image: a redemptive possibility for healing.

A Brief Encounter

2026

A Brief Encounter poster
NR

Kath, an Italian-Filipino woman, works remotely as a digital content moderator in Genoa. When she learns that a colleague in the Philippines has taken his own life—crushed by the very job that fills her own days (the endless cataloging of beheadings, torture, live-streamed suicides, and child abuse)—she initially takes two days off, then extends her break, no longer convinced she can bring herself to return to her terminal. A massage appointment introduces her to Jenny, a Filipino woman who tends to people's bodies as a side job. That scheduled hour evolves into something more—an encounter neither woman expected. Each carrying her own burdens and losses, they finally find a way, together, to stop being invisible. The screen, once capable only of wounding them, now reflects a new image: a redemptive possibility for healing.

A Brief Encounter

2026

Santelmo poster
NR

Encyclopaedias describe St. Elmo's fire as a harmless meteorological phenomenon caused by a strong static discharge. In Philippine mythology, a "santelmo" is a wandering soul of a deceased person who has not found peace yet. Similarly, young men wandering through countryside seek in vain reconciliation with the world in this hypnotic black and white poem that resembles the work of Lav Diaz because of its contemplative pace. The three young men, whose aimless journey is accompanied only by rustling of leaves and grass, chirping of insects, and singing of birds, speak about people for whom they have suffered and whom they plan to take revenge on. Yet, they are prevented from freeing themselves by memories that cannot be killed.

Santelmo

2021

No artwork available
5.0

Dream and memory of two sisters meet, as one grieves for the death of her sister while the other tries to let go of her memories.

The Ebb of Forgetting

2015

No artwork available
5.0

Dream and memory of two sisters meet, as one grieves for the death of her sister while the other tries to let go of her memories.

The Ebb of Forgetting

2015

No artwork available
5.0

Dream and memory of two sisters meet, as one grieves for the death of her sister while the other tries to let go of her memories.

The Ebb of Forgetting

2015

Notes from Unknown Maladies poster
5.0

The filmmaker went back to his hometown to make a touching portrait of his sick grandmother. 94-year-old Concepcion has been suffering from nervous breakdown for the past 50 years. She chooses to live alone and is haunted by random memories of the past: a memory of a nation and other life’s mysteries. Now, she faces a new period in her life as she slowly loses the capacity to remember.

Notes from Unknown Maladies

2018

Notes from Unknown Maladies poster
5.0

The filmmaker went back to his hometown to make a touching portrait of his sick grandmother. 94-year-old Concepcion has been suffering from nervous breakdown for the past 50 years. She chooses to live alone and is haunted by random memories of the past: a memory of a nation and other life’s mysteries. Now, she faces a new period in her life as she slowly loses the capacity to remember.

Notes from Unknown Maladies

2018

No artwork available
NR

A slice-of-life documentary of the rubber plantation boys in Zamboanga Sibugay. It’s about boyhood journeys and life’s realities told in a free-spirited, yet melancholic manner.

Of Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals, and Sashimi

2015

Where the Night Stands Still poster
NR

Three Filipino siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, meet in the villa that one of the sisters has inherited. Shared memories and buried grievances come to the surface and put their fragile relationship to the test.

Where the Night Stands Still

2025

Where the Night Stands Still poster
NR

Three Filipino siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, meet in the villa that one of the sisters has inherited. Shared memories and buried grievances come to the surface and put their fragile relationship to the test.

Where the Night Stands Still

2025

Where the Night Stands Still poster
NR

Three Filipino siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, meet in the villa that one of the sisters has inherited. Shared memories and buried grievances come to the surface and put their fragile relationship to the test.

Where the Night Stands Still

2025

Where the Night Stands Still poster
NR

Three Filipino siblings, all domestic workers in Italy, meet in the villa that one of the sisters has inherited. Shared memories and buried grievances come to the surface and put their fragile relationship to the test.

Where the Night Stands Still

2025

Topografia poster
2.0

Set on the eve of a fictional inaugural of the Bangsamoro Government, the film revolves around Daud, a scion of a political dynasty who is reluctant to become a member of the Parliament, and his college buddy Marco, a struggling journalist assigned to cover the inaugural. The duo drive off to the countryside, reminiscing their days as student activists and discovering their deepest longings as hostages of a future they will inherit.

Topografia

2022

Daughters of the Three Tailed Banner poster
NR

A family is in ruins after the last male member dies. To salvage their future, the matriarch Kadiguia decides to look for a suitable husband for the eligible Tonina to continue the line of martyrs and warriors. Many miles away in the city, Aida secretly works in a hotel after falling victim to an illegal recruiter. She hides this fact from her family who believes that she is in faraway Kuwait working as a nanny.

Daughters of the Three Tailed Banner

2016