MA-AN L. ASUNCION-DAGÑALAN is an acclaimed director and screenwriter, recognized for her award-winning work in Philippine cinema. She won Best Director at the 2022 Cinemalaya Film Festival and the 2023 Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Awards. Her film Blue Room received international acclaim, winning Best Foreign Film at the 2023 LA Femme International Film Festival. She was also a Pro Online Delegate at the 74th Locarno International Film Festival. Blue Room was also her first film as a producer.

In 2025, Ma-an was selected as a participant in the Rotterdam Lab at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (1–5 February), and in the Producers Network at the Cannes Film Festival (14–19 May).

Originally from San Fernando, Pampanga, she began her cinematic journey in 2003, studying cinematography before expanding her expertise in Mexican filmmaking under Gustavo Loza in 2006. She trained under National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee, and Found Story founder Armando Lao.

She is currently the Secretary of the Directors' Guild of the Philippines (DGPI), and a core member of the Filipino Screenwriters Guild (FSG).

MICHAEL ANGELO DAGÑALAN is a movie fan as a kid, theater actor in high school and college. Dioquino scholar at the University of Santo Tomas and graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts major in Communication Arts. Starting out as a news writer/on-cam reporter, he pursued screenwriting and assistant director work.

He attended the Screenwriting workshops by Ricky Lee, National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts. The onset of Digital cinema gave him the opportunity to tell his own stories. Poet, pet guardian to rescued/adopted cats & dogs, and composer/vocalist with the alternative rock band KontraLuz. He believes that film not only entertains and inform but a creative documentation of our time.

After the pandemic, the challenge is to bring back the audience into the cinemas. He is working on his 4th feature the dark comedy/sci-fi "My AI Girlfriend" (DGPI-FDCP Film Pitch Finalist 2024), the social-issue shortfilm “Suklay” (Comb, NCCA 2025 Grantee) and the lyrical romance shortfilm “Dangwa Manila” to contribute in this goal. As a film lecturer, he believes that sharing means re-learning to develop film-making, its community and its audience.

He is a bona fide member of the Directors Guild of the Philippines(DGPI) and the Filipino Screenwriters Guild(FSG).