Dear Wormwood

DODO DAYAO is a Filipino filmmaker and screenwriter known for his distinct voice in genre cinema. He co-wrote several acclaimed films including Khavn's Hindi Kita Kilala (2010), John Torres’ Lukas the Strange (2013) and The Remotes (2022), Kenneth Dagatan's Ma (2014), and Bradley Liew’s The Tapes (2020). He also penned Cattleya Killer (2023) and Uninvited (2024), both directed by Dan Villegas, and Kampon (Surrogate) (2023), directed by King Palisoc. 
 

Dodo’s debut feature Violator (2014) won Best Picture at Cinema One Originals and screened at international festivals including Karlovy Vary, Fantaspoa, Osaka, NYAFF, BiFan, and the London Film Festival. His short film If You Leave (2016) won Best Asian Short at Binisaya and screened in Busan and Winterthur. His second feature, Midnight in a Perfect World (2020), premiered internationally at Neuchâtel and earned multiple awards, including Best Film at ToHorror and FACINE, and a Special Jury Mention at Fantasia. Dodo’s work blends horror, surrealism, and sociopolitical undercurrents with a deeply personal lens. He is currently developing Dear Wormwood, his third feature, under Monsoon Projects Inc., where he serves as Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer.

ATTI LAPUS is a Filipino producer and the President and Co-founder of Monsoon Projects, Inc., a Manila-based production company she launched in 2025 with filmmaker Dodo Dayao. A cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines Film Institute, she has deepened her international training through programs including the University of Tübingen’s International and European Studies Program, NAFF Fantastic Film School, Locarno Match Me, Full Circle Lab’s Fiction and Creative Producer Labs, and the International Film Business Academy’s 2024 Business Track. 
 

Patti began her career in 2016 as a freelance line producer and was part of the Philippine casting team for Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness. From 2020 to 2024, she served as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Production at Epicmedia Productions, Inc., where she helped oversee numerous international festival titles. Her producing credits include Midnight in a Perfect World, Tenement 66, Nocebo, In My Mother’s Skin, I Am Not Big Bird, and Directors’ Factory Philippines at Cannes 2024. She is currently Interim Co-Chairperson of the Inter-Guild Alliance and President of the New Asian Producers Network (NAPNet) Steering Committee for 2025. She is also a certified intimacy coordinator through the Intimacy Professionals Association (IPA) in Los Angeles, USA.

SHERAD ANTHONY SANCHEZ is an acclaimed Filipino filmmaker known for bold, genre-defying work that has earned global recognition. An AB Communications graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, Sanchez’s first short—created as a class exercise—premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), jumpstarting his international presence.
 

While still in university, he directed his debut feature Huling Balyan ng Buhi, which won numerous local and international awards. He was later selected for the Fulbright-funded Fusion Arts Program at University of Southern California before returning to complete his second feature—controversially censored yet widely awarded, Imburnal.
 

Sherad continued to challenge norms with a daring erotica that screened uncensored and received a special citation at Berlin Pornfilmfestival. Over the past decade, he served as a long-time creative consultant and selection committee member of Cinema One Originals and became a mentor and consultant to over 350 feature films and hundreds of shorts. Many of these projects screened at major film festivals and/or earned box-office success.
 

Sanchez has directed several more award-winning features, selected in hundreds of international festivals and remains an influential voice in the region. He frequently lectures, conducts workshops, and serves on grant panels and festival juries.