We present the finalists of the XVIII Piling Obrang Vidyo, which will take place on March 12-19, 2022 at the MOOV website.

Judges:
– Carla Pulido Ocampo
– Ligaya Villablanca
– Therese Malvar
– Jason Tan Liwag

Finalists:

An equipment that can project subconsciousness is used by a filmmaker to expose the life of a woman, horrors of a farmer, dreams of a kid, mind of a water buffalo, and his own subconsciousness. Segmented in a three-part sequence, the filmmaker connects the desires, anguish, dreams, and realities into a single color.

Pelikultura: Calabarzon Film Festival 2021 – Exhibition Category

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=651656369418611

After watching a woman cry on television, an emotionless man finds a naked guy that looks exactly like him in his room. The doppelganger guides the man in his peregrination of confronting his identity and emotions. The man tries to be unbothered by the doppelganger, as he eagerly finds drinking water to replenish his thirst. But as he becomes closer to the doppelganger up to a conversation with him, he cries and bursts into tears.

Oroquieta Film Festival 2021 Official Selection
2nd Sundayag Film Festival For Exhibition

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=460825509167479

Somewhere in Manila in 2016, there is a pitch-black secret jail. Locked and beaten by the police, two strangers had an existential conversation about their alternate lives. One thing for sure: No eyes and justice can see through it. No hope and justice can save them.

Pelikultura 2021 Exhibition Film

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=660023008376641

Naging marahas sa atin ang epekto ng Pandemya. May mga taong hindi kinayang labanan ang sakit, mga taong patuloy na nahahawa, mga taong nawalan ng trabaho, at may mga patuloy na nag-tratrabaho on site at work from home sa kabila ng krisis. Sa usapang edukasyon, maraming estudyante ang nahihirapan dahil sa kakulangan ng sapat na kagamitan upang makapag-aral o makasama sa mga online classes. Para naman sa mga nasa larangan ng sining, sinira ng pandemya ang kanilang katinuan. Nawalan sila ng mapagkukunan ng inspirasyon upang makagawa ng sining. Para bang, inagaw sa kanila ang kanilang layunin bilang mga alagad ng sining. Buhay nila’y tila naging itim at puti — kumupas ang kulay ng kanilang mundong ginagalawan.

Susundan ang buhay ni Sef Tafalla, isang manunulat na naging biktima rin ng walang awang epekto ng pandemya. Sa isang buong taon na makulong sa apat na sulok ng kanyang tahanan, makikita kung paano tinanggal sa kanya ng pandemya ang kakayahan niya sa pagsusulat at ang pagiging malikhain at kung paano ang naging epekto sa kanya neto, lalo na sa kanyang mentalidad.

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=701583034191877

The filmmaker had spent time physically with his half-American cousins on three separate occasions in his past. His Filipino-American relatives only get to visit the Philippines every five years because the trips are expensive. The filmmaker’s family residing in the Philippines, on the other hand, wishes to visit their relatives back in the United States, but they can’t afford the expenses of the trip either.

Financial burdens force both sides of our families to make the most out their 2-week visits; to catch each other up with five years worth of experiences because they have no other choice but to do so. For the ones left behind, those three separate visits from the past are now ingrained as memories slowly fading. Is it all just part of growing up? Or is someone to blame?

Official Selection – 7th Festival Internacional de Cinema Escolar de Alvorada (FECEA)
Official Selection – Oroquieta Film Festival 2021
Exhibition – 1st Cinemugat Short Film Festival

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=379213384042795

Two friends, Sunshine and Frena, traverse the pandemic through rumination on mundane things. Segmented into 4 poetic parts, the 14-day quarantine period they experience stretches the boundaries of their sanity and self-hood all the while grieving and longing for and with each other.

PELIKULTURA: Calabarzon Film Festival – Best Film
PELIKULTURA: Calabarzon Film Festival – Best Performance (Jzar Tabilin & Serena Magiliw)
UP Pride Film Festival – Official Selection
For Rainbow (Brazil) – Official Selection

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=510068880726100

In a rural area in Mindanao, a deaf-mute boy witnesses the mysterious drowning of twins in a river. As his brother helps him overcome the trauma induced by the event, the harsh truth rises from the waters.

Chuncheon Film Festival of South Korea – Bomnea Grand Prize
Nabunturan Independent Film Exhibition – Gimadyawan Award for Best Film
Tashkent International Film Festival – Finalist
Sinepiyu Film Festival – Finalist
Mindanao Film Festival – Main Competition
Beirut International Spot Shot Film Festival – Finalist
Diwa Filipino Film Festival of Seattle – Official Selection
Munato Film Festival – Exhibition Film

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3241616279400587

Three strangers meet at a party one night and discover hidden desires, sins, and guilt when they realize that they are in the netherworld.

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=695314634928793

In a post-apocalyptic world, an 18-year-old woman finally gets the opportunity to celebrate her sister’s birthday with the dress she’s been saving for, only to find out that her sibling had long been dead for a decade.

19th Mindanao Film Festival – BEST FILM
19th Mindanao Film Festival – BEST DIRECTOR
19th Mindanao Film Festival – BEST ACTRESS
19th Mindanao Film Festival – BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Nabunturan Independent Film Exhibition – BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1078264176055700

A run-of-the-mill theater actor got involved in a thought-out audition for a government propaganda. A director and his crew led the audition in a conventional manner, meanwhile a famous figure seems to be watching the filmed audition. After being satisfied with what inhumanity was filmed. Deceit and manipulation takes place in a room filled with cigarette smokes, heavy liquor and hard cash joyfully being consumed by the pigs in the pen.

Official Selection, 33rd Gawad Alternatibo

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=626074451827958

A rambutan strolls around and interacts with an orange. The orange goes back to its fruit group with the rambutan and suddenly, the rambutan doubles its number. The rambutan brings chaos to the other oranges for every time they interact with it, they rot. To help out with the chaos, bananas used their capabilities to clear the rambutans but it all was not enough. Some fruits start to cover themselves with plastic for protection but others still die. The spread of rambutan becomes uncontrollable and the rotting of fruits becomes frequent. This leads to other rotten fruits being burnt down to ashes by lansones. Amid this, a banana with a blue dot comes and is able to turn a rambutan into ashes. This led the other fruits to have blue dots on them. The rambutans around the other fruits with blue dots slowly vanish until the last rambutan disappears. With all the fruits getting their blue dots, harmony is brought back.

VanGarde Experimental Film Festival 2021 (Mapua) – Special Citation for Subject Matter

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=339553474771268

A girl living in the darkness, only has a mirror to keep her company. Her life takes an unexpected turn when a burst of light appears before her. Surrounded by voices tormenting her, she sees it as the only way to escape. Despite the uncertainty of what is beyond the light, she takes a peek and sees a world better than what she has. Even if she wants to remain. she is unsafe from the voices that is constantly after her.

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1357599207998989

Playing along with the zest of seemingly innocent childhood games, the players suffer through power play, oppression, and other injustices. The players struggle to break away from the circus set by the higher-ups when the three-part game unmasks as an allegory to the deep-rooted societal issues. People clamor for the games to be over when they find themselves not as players but as people who get played.

UST Sine Reel 2021: Special Jury Citation Award – Best Picture Nominee
UST Sine Reel 2021: Special Jury Citation Award – Best Sound Nominee
UST Sine Reel 2021: Special Jury Citation Award – Best Musical Score Nominee

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=631588894738757

In his teen years, Leo has become used to his father’s frequent absence, getting by each day through the care of his mother and the presence of his friends down the block. His father, Ron, was usually out of a job, yet comes home drunk and abusive to his wife Anne.

Leo tolerates the his father’s abusive remarks to not make things worse, until Leo hears him slapping his mother. Out of rage, Ron storms out to leave them, yet Leo does not hesitate to chase him outside. He fails to catch up with his father on a tricycle. The following day, his friends appear before him as they tease him. He breaks down in tears as he chases them. The childish games and insults would never be the same for Leo.

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=631588894738757

As the teenage girl wanders around the forest, she suddenly finds a broken mirror. Driven by her curiosity, she went to touch it, only to discover the one thing that she had been escaping from all this time – her true self.

9th SineDisipulo – Official Selection (Exhibition)
REALIFILM 2021 – Official Selection, Best Film Poster, Best Supporting Actress
7th Cinemandirigma – Official Selection, 2nd Best Film
Gawad Alternatibo 2021 – Official Selection (Short Feature)
Nabunturan Independent Film Exhibition – Official Selection (In-Competition)
Pelikultura 2021 Exhibition Films Category – Official Selection (Exhibition)

Trailer: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=441872310645963

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