MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The QCinema International Film Festival is set to premiere six short films in its 2023 edition.
These short films are part of QCinema’s QCShorts competition section and each received grants worth PHP 350,000 to produce the film while retaining exclusive rights to their films.
This year’s batch includes a lot of young filmmakers and one legend of Filipino cinema.
Apa Agbayani’s Abutan Man Tayo ng Houselights stars Jon Santos as a middle-aged gay man in 2044, out for one last romp in this future Manila’s rave scene. He runs into an ex-lover, changing the tenor of his entire night.
Animal Lovers, by Aedrian Araojo, is a darkly funny, black-and-white Chavacano film about a married couple (Iana Bernardez and Karl Medina) and their intimate relationships with their respective pets.
Ilongga filmmaker Myra Angeline Soriaso offers up A Catholic Schoolgirl, which tells the story of a teenage girl in a convent-run school who has developed feelings for one of her nun teachers, and feels she must confess before said sister is transferred to another province.
Microplastics, by Lino Balmes, is a mostly silent movie that follows the melancholy of a young boy who grows up to middle age still unable to really understand how to achieve happiness in a world of artificiality.
Che Tagyamon, who previously joined QCinema with her short Judy Free, returns with an animated effort, Tumatawa, Umiiyak. It follows a boy and his grandfather as they try to collect flowers for a school project, along the way discovering the glaring disparities between areas in the city.
Finally, animator and artist Roxlee gives us Tamgohoy, a fictionalized telling of Bohol’s two major rebellions. The film imagines a meeting between Tamblot and Dagohoy, the two figures at the center of their respective rebellions against the Spanish.
QCinema will run from November 17 to 26, 2023 at Gateway Cineplex, Shang Red Carpet Cinemas, Robinsons Movieworld Magnolia, Power Plant Cinemas, and Ayala Cinemas UP Town Center.
Check out the detailed schedule and other information about the festival at qcinema.ph.
