Cinemalaya 2020 is upon us and what better way to celebrate independent cinema than by watching 10 amazing short films in competition for this year’s festival through Vimeo.

Check out these 10 short films vying for top honors in this year’s competition.

Ang Gasgas na Plaka ni Lolo Bert
Filmmakers: JANINA GACOSTA and CHESKA MARFORI

SYNOPSIS: A closeted gay man in his 60s has been living with HIV for 10 years. His monotonous life takes a sudden turn when he receives an old vinyl record from his dead ex-lover.

Ang Pagpapakalma sa Unos

Filmmaker: JOANNA VASQUEZ ARONG

SYNOPSIS: To Calm the Pig Inside contemplates on the effects a typhoon leaves on a seaside city. Myths are woven in to try to understand how people cope with the devastation and trauma. A girl’s voice divulges bits and pieces of her own memory of her grandmother and mother to tie in the experiences she felt visiting this ravaged port city.

Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss

Filmmaker: SONNY CALVENTO

SYNOPSIS: Vangie, a miserable contractual sales lady, is about to lose her job. But in her desperate attempt to convince her boss not to sack her, Vangie uncovers the ultimate jaw-dropping secret to regularization. “Excuse Me Miss, Miss, Miss” is a social satire about the plight of contractual workers in the Philippines.

Fatigued

FILMMAKER: JAMES ROBIN MAYO

SYNOPSIS: Fatigued is an interactive short film where audience participation is important. It is about an employee who overslept and must wake-up from his/her nightmare. Today, you can watch any movie online through different streaming sites. The idea behind this short film is to make a film that will exclusively let you feel the cinematic experience. The space and time inside the cinema are different from watching in your house. The Live participation of the audience is the unique experience you will witness when you watch along with group of people and inside the cinema.

Living Things

FILMMAKER: MARTIKA RAMIREZ ESCOBAR

SYNOPSIS: Kints and Charles have been together for almost a decade. One day, Kints wakes up and discovers that her lover has changed, literally. Although troubled at first, she eventually understands that what happened is a natural phenomenon. Through this, she is reminded that people change all the time, and love can change people.

Pabasa Kan Pasyon

FILMMAKER: HUBERT TIBI

SYNOPSIS: Religion and economy take center stage in a Bicolano family’s story, set during the Lenten season. To make ends meet, one of them turns to religion and pushes his mother to make a living off her faith.

Qing Lalam Ning Aldo

FILMMAKER: REEDEN FAJARDO

SYNOPSIS: Upon learning that their son is coming home after 15 years, Budang and Georgia, transgender farmers from Pampanga, decided to surprise Janjan by renovating their neglected kitchen and gather ingredients so they can cook their favourite dish “con saleng manuk” but things will not work as planned.

The Slums

FILMMAKER: REEDEN FAJARDO

SYNOPSIS: The Slums is a mockumentary that follows a documentary team as they terrorize a poor family living in the urban slums of Manila. The film features the colorful lives of the Reyes family: Nayda, the family’s loving mother with body image issues; Julio, the hardworking but not very bright father; Oliver, the fabulous son who wants to be a supermodel; Boy, the youngest and naughtiest child; and Pam, the feisty eldest child of the family. The family TV is broken and as they struggle to fix it, they grow increasingly annoyed as the documentary team becomes more involved in their daily lives.

TOKWIFI

FILMMAKER: CARLA PULIDO OCAMPO

SYNOPSIS: As Limmayug carries firewood back to his home village, something falls from the sky – a 1950s television with a hysterical showbiz star, named Laura Blancaflor, trapped inside it. The frightened man saves the television – nay, saves Laura – from the flames of the impact. Worlds apart in their language and methods, the two try their best to engage each other. But for Limmayug, an indigenous man from an off-the-grid mountain town, Laura’s TV talk seems too contrived and finds her even uncontrollably tactless during commercial breaks.

Utwas (Arise)

FILMMAKERS: RICHARD SALVADICO and ARLIE SWEET SUMAGAYSAY

SYNOPSIS: Toto and his father live in an island where the primary source of their livelihood is the ocean. He loves diving with his father because he wants to learn how to fish, dive and be one with the ocean. One afternoon, while Toto and his father are diving, a group of fishermen throw dynamites around them. They hurriedly go home. Curious, Toto asks his father why they have to arise from the water if there are dynamite fishers. His father explains that some dynamite fishers are careless and that fishes swim away because of the noise so they have to arise because they have nothing to catch and they are in danger. As Toto’s father dives, he notices that the ocean is too noisy and when he arises too early, Toto asks him why. His father explains that perhaps the ocean is too noisy because it is either angry or happy.

Cinemalaya 2020 will be available on the Vimeo platform from August 7-16, 2020 so don’t miss your chance to support this year’s edition!