Andrea Benjamin Manenti’s debut feature, We Must Have Sex Before the World Ends, a cross-cultural coming-of-age comedy set in Italy and the Philippines, is seeking financing and animation partners at the Tokyo Gap Financing Market.
The film tells the story of Ren, a 16-year-old Filipino-Italian teenager who is held captive by the possessive love of his mother, Mia, and must be freed during a three-day Filipino wake as Typhoon Edith approaches Manila. After receiving news that Mia’s mother Moini has passed away in the Philippines, mother and son return to Manila. There, Len is charmed by his cousin’s babysitter, Jolina, and learns the lessons of love from his eccentric cousin, Monique. As typhoon Edith approaches and his family becomes increasingly dysfunctional, Ren must assert his independence.
The project combines live action and animation to reinvent the lost archetype of innocence and discover one’s roots in the setting of a Filipino wake, a setting rarely seen in Italian cinema.
“What I’m aiming for is a film that is simultaneously tender and punk. It’s about a clumsy and mysterious attempt to connect with another person, and it’s a hybrid cross-cultural film that speaks to second- and third-generation audiences caught between two distant worlds,” Manenti told Variety.
The project is structured as a four-country co-production, two from Asia and two from Europe, with Italy’s Volos Films and the Philippines’ Epicmedia already partnered.
“Since the co-production agreement was signed between Italy and Japan, we feel that there are many more opportunities for collaboration between Italy and Asia. The TIFFCOM market has been instrumental in facilitating these partnerships, so it makes a lot of sense that we are at this stage,” Stefano Centini, producer at Volos Film Italia, told Variety.
The project recently won the Best Motion Picture Project Development Award at MIA Rome and received an industry first pitch. “So far, the reception has been overwhelmingly warm,” says Manenti, who co-wrote the script with Rossella Inglese and Antonio La Camera. Filipino editor Carlo Francisco Manatad is attached to the project, saying he deeply respects Centini’s work as editor and director.
Manenti wrote the film after the death of his mother Edith. “I had a private ‘end of the world’ that I had to face. Perhaps the only way to get through it was to write a story within it: a comedy about my mother’s morbid devotion to me, a dysfunctional family, and a clumsy but brilliant attempt to rebuild relationships,” he says.
The project previously participated in Milan Film Network’s InProgress Lab in 2023, where Manenti met Carlo Hintermann, first a mentor and now creative lead and producer. Hintermann then brought on producers Centini and Serena Alfieri from Volos Film. “The strength of this team is our culture of care. Film is deeply personal, yet it thrives as a collective creative process,” says Manenti.
Centini praises the energy of the new generation of Italian filmmakers. “There is a revived energy among these young creators that reminds me of my previous experiences in Asia, especially in the Philippines: mutual care and a collective will to create something exciting and moving at the same time,” he says. “Working with Epic Media, a Filipino co-producer who shares our co-production ideals, was the most natural thing for this film.”
Manenti, who also works as a cinematographer in collaboration with Italian New Wave filmmakers, speaks of the collaborative spirit of his generation. “There is a real sense of sharing. We are first and foremost a group of people who respect and care for each other, and far from toxic competition. We are building an ecosystem that will be our strength in the long run,” he says.
The team aims to complete financing in 2026 and begin production in 2027, with a research trip to the Philippines and casting of the main character scheduled for next year.
