Hito directed by Stephen Lopez was awarded the Vienna Short Film Award at the Vienna Shorts – International Short Film Festival which took place from June 1 – 6, 2023 in Vienna, Austria.

FIDO Fiction & Documentary – International Competition
Vienna Short Film Award

A floating dog, a talking fish from the test lab, and fourteen-year-old Jani smack-dab in the middle. In a dystopian world riddled with nuclear reactors and governed by military curfews, the teenager struggles through a life marked by surreal encounters and bleak realities. With plenty of color, shrillness, and noise, Stephen Lopez stages this fantastic story spawned by the political regime of the Philippines.

Jury Comments:
This is an unclassifiable and unconventional film that, through its visual excess and multimedia playfulness, provides biting and humorous commentary on an authoritarian state. Weaving its way through tableaux of familial and human-animal relations, the film grapples with both narrative and political control.

Trailer: