The QCinema International Film Festival has announced the recipients of its 2026 QCShorts grant, distributing ₱3.5 million ($57,817) across five short film projects by Filipino filmmakers based in the Philippines.
Selected from a record-breaking 395 submissions, the funded projects represent a wide range of voices, with projects exploring themes of political estrangement, intergenerational conflict, queer embodiment, folklore, and personal alienation.
“What stands out, even when we were shortlisting, are the increasing number of films from the regions and works that are deeply rooted in genre,” says Ed Lejano, QCinema’s artistic director and the newly appointed executive director of the QC Screen Commission. “Many of the titles that stood out use filmmaking, narrative conventions, satire, and even myths as a way to make sense of the violence, extremism, absurdity, and gross injustice happening today.”
The selected filmmakers and their projects are: Carla Pulido Ocampo (“Agsangit Laeng ti Al-alia”), Clister Santos (“Sana’y Nandito Ka”), Maki Makilan (“Body Works”), Rodiell Veloso (“Run Shirley Run!”), and Toni Cañete (“Maanaa Kanimo”).
“This new batch of shorts all examine widening rifts between the individual and the family, between our bodies and beliefs,” says Jason Tan Liwag, head of short film programming. “Whether it’s about distant wars, fissures within communities, or personal alienation, we are committed to holding space for stories that are deeply political, regional, and quintessentially Filipino.”
Written and directed by Carla Pulido Ocampo and produced by Lester Valle, the Ilocano period drama “Agsangit Laeng ti Al-alia (A Ghost Can Only Howl)” follows a young feminine herbolario who dons his mother’s clothes in the hopes of joining the revolutionary forces but would have to get past his father’s madness first. No strangers to QCinema, Ocampo and Valle have already been awarded the QCShorts grant in 2019, enabling them to create the romantic fantasy drama “Tokwifi”—which won awards at QCinema, Cinemalaya, Gawad Urian, and FAMAS.
The second film, “Body Works,” written and directed by Maki Makilan and produced by Earvic Noay, Patti Lapus, and Dodo Dayao, is a lesbian boudoir drama about a laid-off dishwasher who finds survival in a paid romance—until love begins to demand more than a transaction. Makilan, a Negros Occidental-born filmmaker based in Quezon City, explores themes of displacement, queerness, and domestic migration, with her works screened in Cebu, Bangkok, San Diego, and more.
“Maanaa Kanimo (With You)” adds a queer coming-of-age drama to the lineup. Set in a tight-knit community disrupted by the disappearance of a Mama Mary statue, it follows two sisters as they confront questions of identity, faith, and morality. It is written and directed by Toni Cañete and produced by Tin Velasco and Micah Tadena. Cañete is a filmmaker from Cagayan de Oro City, who has earned top prizes from the CCP Gawad Alternatibo and the Mindanao Film Festival for her works centering young women and resistance and is an alumna of ASEAN-ROK Fly Leaders Incubator FLY2025.
“Run Shirley Run!,” written and directed by Rodiell Veloso and produced by Rajiv Idnani and Tomomi Furuyama, is a dark comedy queer body horror set in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao. It follows a suicidal manananggal who splits in two—with her top half wanting to die and her bottom half wanting to live. Chaos erupts in an ukay-ukay depot when two bumbling aswang hunters and horny teenagers get in the way of their deadly reunion. Drawing from the works of Takashi Miike, Sion Sono, and Julia Ducornau, Veloso is also an alumnus of Busan Asian Film School, and Full Circle Lab Philippines.
Lastly, writer-director Clister Santos and producers Leon Lopez and Alex Poblete introduce an animated slice-of-life drama into the lineup. “Sana’y Nandito Ka” follows a young man reuniting with his estranged mother six years after. Santos, a graduate of the CIIT College of Arts and Technology, is a multimedia artist and art director. His debut short film “Ili-Ili” (2023) made its world premiere at the 38th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival and earned the top prize for animation at the CCP Gawad Alternatibo 2024.
Established in 2016, QCinema’s QCShorts Production Grant was created to champion singular filmmaking voices dedicated to telling rich, emotionally resonant, and uniquely Filipino stories that can only be told through the short film format. Past recipients of the QCShorts grant have won top awards from local award-giving bodies such as the Gawad Urian and FAMAS Awards and have gained recognition at major festivals in Berlin, Sundance, Toronto, Clermont-Ferrand, Locarno, Singapore, the UK, Shanghai, Kaohsiung, and New York, among others.
Since its launch, the program has awarded a total of ₱14.85 million ($245,237) to 56 Filipino short films produced throughout the country, spanning a wide range of cinematic styles, forms, genres, languages, and origins. Submissions undergo three rounds of intensive evaluation by an eight-member selection committee composed of respected cinema experts, film critics, and accomplished filmmakers, ensuring that only the most compelling and promising works are brought to life. The five grantees will make their world premieres at QCinema later in November.
This year’s selection committee includes QCinema artistic director Ed Lejano; producer, QCinema film programmer, and Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) Division Chief for Film Awards and Events Kints Kintana; film critic, educator, film programmer, and Critics Lab coordinator Jason Tan Liwag; film critic, programmer, and QCinema’s head of publications Philbert Dy; actor and producer Iana Bernardez; filmmaker, musician, and journalist Quark Henares; documentarist and producer Venice Atienza; and filmmaker and production designer Sam Manacsa.
The 14th edition of the QCinema International Film Festival will be held on November 13-22, 2026.
