Magellan (film)

Magellan (Portuguese: Magalhães) is a 2025 internationally co-produced epic historical drama film written, directed, and co-edited by Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, in his first film in Portuguese and Spanish.^[2] It stars Gael García Bernal as Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, and depicts his role in the Portuguese and Spanish colonial campaigns in Southeast Asia in the early 16th century.^[3]

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Premiere section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2025.

• Gael García Bernal as Ferdinand Magellan
• Roger Alan Koza as Afonso de Albuquerque^[4]
• Ângela Ramos as Beatriz
• Dario Yazbek Bernal as Duarte Barbosa
• Amado Arjay Babon as Enrique
• Ronnie Lazaro as Raja Humabon
• Bong Cabrera as Raja Colambu
• Hazel Orencio as Juana
• Rafael Morais as Joao Carvalho

Lav Diaz and producer Albert Serra first connected when Serra curated Diaz's work for a museum in Barcelona. Serra, who is from Spain, and Joaquim Sapinho, who is Portuguese, told Diaz they were interested in funding an international co-production film between the three countries. Diaz, who at the time was already doing research on the life of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan who sailed to the Philippines under the Spanish crown, committed into the project. ^[5]

First announced in 2019 as "Beatriz, The Wife", Diaz was first inspired by the life of Magellan's wife Beatriz Barbosa de Magallanes, whom he married just two years before he set off for the Magellan expedition.^[6] The film was produced by Portuguese studio Rosa Filmes with Andergraun Films from Spain, Black Cap Pictures from the Philippines, and Volos Films from Taiwan.^[7]

During post-production the footage was divided in two feature films, with Magellan being the first, while an untitled second film will have a 9-hour cut and will feature Beatrice version of the story.^[3]

Filming took place in Sampaloc and Mauban towns in Quezon, Philippines in the last quarter of 2024, followed by filming in southern Portugal and Cádiz, Spain. Production wrapped in December.^[3][8] The replica of the Victoria which was in Cádiz was also used as a filming set.^[8] Arthur Tort, producer Albert Serra's regular collaborator, was the director of photography alongside Diaz regular cinematographer Larry Manda.

Diaz asserts that the film is "closer to the truth" and that Lapulapu, the datu of Mactan, is more of a "myth".^[9] He claimed that Lapulapu is a creation by Rajah Humabon to discourage Magellan's crew in converting more people to Christianity, remarking that "No one ever saw Lapulapu". Due to Lapulapu's widespread and official recognition as a historical figure in the Philippines (an alleged precolonial text called the Aginid had chronicled Lapulapu's actions before and after the battle of Mactan),^{[10][11][12][13]} Diaz expressed that he anticipates accusations of revisionism towards his portrayal of history in Magellan.^[14]

Magellan had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2025.^[8][15] It was screened in the Cannes Premiere section, while the second film is still in post-production.^[16]

Prior to its world premiere, Nour Films acquired the distribution rights of the film in France.^[17] The North American distribution rights were acquired by Janus Films, announced after the festival.^[18][19] In the Philippines, Ten17P holds the distribution rights of the film in the country.^[20]

The film had its Australian premiere at the 72nd Sydney Film Festival.^[21]

It is scheduled to make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, followed by the U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival under the Main Slate section.^[22][23]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 11 critics' reviews are positive.^[24]

Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter lauded the film as one of Diaz's most accessible works, with Guy Lodge of Variety lauding how the less than three hours runtime and "politically rigorous work" did not compromise the director's style of slow cinema. IndieWire's Josh Slater-Williams called the film his "most fascinating achievements" praising the film for being immersive in a way that is hard for decades-spanning stories to successfully create.

• Lapu-Lapu, a 2002 Filipino historical film about the titular datu whose men Magellan fought in the Battle of Mactan
• 1521, a 2023 Filipino-American film about the encounter between Magellan's crew and Philippine natives
• Kidlat Tahimik, a Filipino filmmaker who often made films that meditate on Magellan's arrival in the Philippines^{[25][26][27][28]}

• Magellan at IMDb