Here's Your Complete Guide on Cinemalaya 2020 Film Festival

With the pandemic still affecting the country heavily, Cinemalaya 2020 is pushing through with a very different format for this year. Instead of full-length features, the Cinemalaya 2020 Film Festival, aptly-named "Stream Consciousness", will feature 10 short films vying for Best Picture and 20 other short films pre-zelected by Cinemalaya.

The event is slated to run from August 7, 2020 (Friday) to August 16, 2020 (Sunday) and will be completely streamed online using the streaming service Vimeo. Ticket prices start at P75 (to rent 5 films) and up to P350 to get an all-access pass. On top of this year's short film finalists, 20 full-length films, 100 short films, and 20 webinars will also made available.

Here are the 2020 ten short film finalists:

Ang Gasgas na Plaka ni Lolo Bert

Directed by: 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 Pagpakalma sa Unos (To Calm the Pig Inside)

Directed by: Joanna Vasquez Arong

Synopsis: A contemplation 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

Directed by: 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.

Fatigued

Directed by: James Mayo

Synopsis: Fatigued is an interactive short film, wherein the audience participation is important. It is about an employee who overslept and must wake-up from his/her nightmare. Today, you can watch any movies 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 is 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

Directed by: 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

Directed by: 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.

Quing Lalam Ning Aldo (Under the Sun)

Directed by: Reeden Fajardo

Synopsis: A transgender sampaguita farmer decided to renovate their neglected kitchen as soon as she heard that her son is going home.

The Slums

Directed by: Jan Andrei Cobey

Synopsis: A documentary team progressively intervenes and trespasses into the lives of a poor family living in the slums as they try to cope with the loss of their TV.

Tokwifi

Directed by: 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 trapped inside it. She is Laura Blancaflor. 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, alas, during commercial breaks, uncontrollably tactless as well.

Utwas

Directed by: Richard Salvadico and Arlie Sumagaysay

Synopsis: Toto and his father lives 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 as Toto and his father were 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 were in danger. Toto still continues to go with his father in the middle of the ocean. As Toto’s father dives, he notices that the ocean was too noisy and when he arises too early Toto asks him why. His father explains that perhaps the ocean was too noisy because it is either angry or happy.

Part of the curated 20 short films are the following:

1. Ang Meron Sa Wala (Beyond Nothing) by Arby and Christine Larano
2. Ang Nawalang Haligi (Pillar) by Sarah Mya Regacho
3. Dama De Noche by Lawrence Sibug
4. Grand Gestures by Cody Abad
5. Gulis (LINES) by Kyle Jumayne Francisco
6. Habak by Paolo Matibag and Mia Salisbury
7. Himagsik ng Hiwaga (Revolt of the Mystic) by Geoffrey Solidum
8. Igib by Joey Paras
9. Jepoy by Avid Liongoren
10. Kung Saan Patag Ang Bundok (Where The Horizon Meets The Mountain) by Dolliete Echon
11. OctoGod by Shievar Olegario
12. Paon by Seb Valdez
13. Pinakanakapagpapabagabag-Damdamin (Most Disturbing Feeling) by Jermaine Tulbo
14. Si Gloria at Si Juan by Gilliano Salvador
15. Sumasaiyo, (Yours truly,) by Jermaine Tulbo
16. Tarang (Life’s Pedal) by Arvin Alindogan Belarmino
17. The Rooftop by Avirup Biswas

For more information on the 16th edition of Cinemalaya. You can visit their official Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/CinemalayaOfficial/)