With a larger production grant and record-breaking 285 submissions from Filipino filmmakers around the globe, the QCinema International Film Festival presents the six new projects selected for the 2025 QCShorts program.
“The voices behind this year’s QCShorts program are composed mostly of new filmmaking talent—as over a half the roster of directors and producers are still undergraduate students at various universities,” says Jason Tan Liwag, head of short film programming at QCinema. “It’s exciting because there’s clearly a new generation of filmmakers, most of whom were born in the 2000s and have only had a limited number of shorts under their belt, who are seeking support. We’re happy to help and introduce them to the Filipino and international community.”
The filmmakers and their projects are: Norvin de los Santos (“Hoy, Hoy, Ingat!”), Lauviah Caliboso (“Ours Was A Timeless Night Burning”), Racquel “Lysa” Catolico and Jazmine Gin Pateña (“RUNO!”), Dale (“Si Tina: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba-Daba”), Gabriela Serrano and Mariana Serrano (“Surface Tension”), and Gab Rosique (“Yelo”).
“Rather than having similar thematic preoccupations or formal patterns, the current crop of filmmakers are creating self-contained worlds where their characters are trapped between the world they were promised and the world as it is,” says Liwag. “More fascinatingly, all short films in the lineup contend with this generation’s evolving and disintegrating notions of home—the ways we are displaced from it, return to it, and transform along with it.”
Written and directed by Norvin de los Santos and produced by Alex Poblete, the social dramedy “Hoy, Hoy, Ingat! (Hey, Hey, Take Care!)” follows a child eager for viral fame and his beautiful, terminally ill brother who must rescue their beloved PUV jeepney—their last hope to fly home to the countryside. No strangers to QCinema, de los Santos and Poblete had already been awarded the QCShorts grant in 2019, enabling them to create the Gawad Urian-nominated short film “Isang Daa’t Isang Mariposa.” “Hoy, Hoy, Ingat” continues the duos’ search for insights into our systems of care and human rights through cinema.
Writer-director Lauviah Caliboso introduces a queer children’s film in the lineup. “Ours Was A Timeless Night Burning” is centered around two unacquainted daughters who are forced to kill time together through a game of F-L-A-M-E-S and an adult sitcom as they await for their fathers’ return from a night of endless gambling. Primarily a cinematographer, Caliboso was born and raised in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, but is now an undergraduate student at the UP Film Institute. Collaborating with her is Jamie Pauline Sanchez, producer of the 2024 Manila Film Festival finalist “Bahay, Baboy, Bagyo,” and Kim Sta. Ana, producer of the Hiligaynon short “Visitors (Pag-abi-abi).” Caliboso envisions “Ours Was A Timeless Night Burning” as one of the many films she’ll make that explore father-daughter relationships and the dominant narratives around Filipino families.
“RUNO!,” the only animated project in the lineup, follows a silly Filipino stray rescue dog dead set on finding her student owner through a long dangerous journey to defeat her worst enemy: an empty food bowl. The apocalyptic comedy is co-written and co-directed by Racquel “Lysa” Catolico and Jazmine Gin Pateña and produced by Rebekah Sarabosing, all of whom are students of iACADEMY and mentees under Keith Sicat’s Vision Creative Unit. Joining the team as co-producers are Geo Lomuntad and Carl Joseph Papa—the producer-director duo behind the animated sci-fi psychological drama “Iti Mapukpukaw (The Missing),” which won the top prize at the 19th Cinemalaya and was the country’s submission to the 96th Academy Awards.
“Si Tina: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba-Daba (Tina: The Burning Woman)” is a sci-fi film set in Bacolod where its titular character feels a sudden surge of intense body heat as a distant rumble echoes from the mountains. The film is written and directed by Negros-based filmmaker Dale, whose films have screened and earned awards at festivals like Sinenegrense, BINISAYA, and NABIFILMEX. Joining Dale are producers Franz Louie Domasian and JT Trinidad, who were executive producer and writer-director, respectively, of the award-winning short “the river that never ends,” which received the QCShorts grant in 2022. As a trio, they are co-founders of the nomadic film space for amateur and alternative filmmakers called [kino]kolekta.
While sisters Gabriela Serrano and Mariana Serrano have previously worked as a director-actor tandem, they will be making their debut as a directing and producing duo with “Surface Tension.” The drama follows young swimmer Bulet, who finds herself drowning on the day of a small town wedding. Raised in Las Piñas, the Serrano sisters co-wrote the Cinemalaya-winning horror short “Dikit” and the Produire Au Sud-selected sci-fi feature in development “Please Bear With Me.” Playing with genre and form with a tender yet subversively feminist eye, the sisters’ cinematic/audiovisual collaborations have won prizes at international film festivals (Singapore, BIFAN, FNC Montréal), and have been featured on the Criterion Channel and Vogue Philippines.
Completing this year’s batch of QCShorts is writer-director Gab Rosique’s bomba thriller “Yelo.” Set in the cramped heat of a thrift shop in Cubao, “Yelo” follows Jessa and Candy, whose lives and unspoken desires are disrupted by the arrival of a foreigner with promises of America. Born and raised in Davao del Norte, Rosique has previously screened work at the Ngilngig Asian Fantastic Film Festival and most recently won best editing and jury prize at Sinedesipulo 2025. Joining Rosique is producer Miles Jewel Santos, whose works have previously competed and won awards at CinePanalo and Sine Kabataan. Both Rosique and Santos are undergraduate students at the UP Film Institute and “Yelo” expands on their shared interest of reciprocal placemaking through filmmaking.
The final six grantees will receive a P500,000 production grant and will make their world premieres at QCinema later this year. Selection committee members include QCinema festival director Ed Lejano; producer and QCinema programmer Kints Kintana; film critic, lecturer, and programmer Jason Tan Liwag; actor, producer, and moving image artist John Lloyd Cruz; writer, director, and editor Maria Estela Paiso; and writer, director, and production designer Sam Manacsa.
The upcoming edition of the QCinema International Film Festival will be held on November 14-23, 2025.
