The award-winning animated film Iti Mapukpukaw (The Missing) is officially heading to the popular streaming platform Netflix on 24 February.

Netflix Philippines announced the good news on its social media platforms on 29 January.

“We all just want to be found,” Netflix Philippines wrote, adding a collage of some stills from the film. The post has garnered over five thousand likes as of writing.

Iti Mapukpukaw, directed and written by Carl Joseph Papa, was one of the official entries to the full-length feature category of the Cinemalaya Philippines Independent Film Festival 2023.

The Filipino-Ilocano rotoscope animated film emerged not only as the highest-grossing film among the Cinemalaya entries last year, but was also adjudged Best Film. It also won Best Supporting Actress honors for Dolly De Leon, and The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award.

“To perform in an animated feature film — I couldn’t be prouder of this first in my career as an actor. This film is also extra special to me because my character speaks Ilokano here — the language from my Dad’s side,” De Leon wrote in an Instagram post back in July.

The film, she added proudly, was spearheaded by a youth-led production team with over 90 Filipino animators.

The animated science-fiction film starring Carlo Aquino and De Leon was chosen as the country’s official entry to the Academy Awards for Best International Feature. However, it failed to make it to the shortlist released last December 2023.

The film also got its international premiere at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival on 7 January 2024.