'The Boy Foretold by the Stars' is a refreshing escape after 2020. This boys’ love (BL) themed movie can play a potential major role for the country’s gradual acceptance of the LGBTQ community in the Philippines.

After months of unending lockdowns, political issues, and societal uproar, The Boy Foretold by the Stars, is the vibrant rainbow after the rain that is 2020. This BL movie delivers audiences with a meet-cute, therapeutic uncommon romance story that may lead many to long more for the pre-pandemic days.

Philippines is no longer a stranger to the exposure of BL-themed movies and TV shows as we are slowly embracing it in our culture. Even though our country is purposely known to be a conservative nation, this genre still managed to find its way to be seen and loved by a wider audience — which is not only limited to its LGBTQ+ community. Following other Asian countries that have already pioneered and produced plenty of BL films and series, the Filipino BL genre found the pandemic as a perfect timing to start its journey with new series such as “Gameboys”, “Boys’ Lockdown”, and “Gaya sa Pelikula”.

Written and directed by Dolly Dulu, The Boy Foretold by the Stars is a coming of age bittersweet story that involves two senior high school boys namely Dominic Cruz (Adrian Lindayag, who has yet to experience being in love. and Luke Armada (Keann Johnson), who just broke up with his girlfriend. The two find each other with the help of a fortune-teller, in a school retreat called Journey with the Lord. Started as friends, the two develop mutual feelings to each other as the story goes on.

Dulu cleverly chose not to engage with big names. Instead, he picked the roles of the two main characters (and the rest of the cast) for fresh faces that most of us have seen for the first time in a Filipino movie. And it astoundingly worked well to make the movie more genuine and real. The acting of the two also complemented each other — making their relationship more candid and comfortable to see.

Cinematography, production design, and color-grading wise, the director chose the right decision to fit into the romcom approach, and it worked well for the audience to feel what to feel in every sequence of the movie.

In conclusion, the movie succeeded in its intention and goal — which is to celebrate the reality that love is destined for everyone, regardless of gender, preference, or belief. The Boy Foretold by the Stars indeed brought us into a realization that there is still love out there waiting for us — that we should give love another chance, despite how much pain it caused before — that we should never give up on love.

The Boy Foretold by the Stars leads the MMFF 2020 nominations list with 12: Best Film, Director (Dolly Dulu), Screenplay (Dolly Dulu), Actor (Lindayag), Supporting Actor (Ramos), Production Design (Lars Magbanua), Cinematography (Marvin Reyes), Best Musical Score (Jhaye Cura), Theme Song ("Ulan" with music and lyrics by Jhaye Cura, performed by Nikka Maristela), Sound, Gender Sensitivity and Gat Puno Memorial Award, and won 3 in the same award-giving body —the 2nd Best Picture Award, the Best Original Soundtrack, and the Gender Sensitivity Award.