These are twenty short films you shouldn’t miss at the San Diego Filipino Film Festival which will take place from October 3 – 8, 2023 in San Diego, United States.

A Confessional by Jessica Schlimmer – USA | 2022 – 13 minutes
After losing her eldest daughter, Maria Cordero struggles between her guilt and faith as she attends Mass a year later with her younger daughter, Analyn. (SDFFF 2023)

A Memory Play by Alyssa Lara – USA | 2023 – 20 minutes
A young woman stuck in her childhood home tries to find purpose and meaning despite living in a quarantined world. (SDFFF 2023)

Awaken by Alijah Jacob Castillo Buada – USA | 2023 – 10 minutes
A young girl struggling with delusion and a weary local frequent their favorite seaside bench. (SDFFF 2023)

Balikbayan by Rebecca Rajadnya – USA | 2023 – 19 minutes
A Filipina immigrant grapples with the physical distance from the family she left behind and the cultural disconnect from her daughters in the United States. (SDFFF 2023)

Trailer:

Dog, Bruh! by Katja – USA | 2023 – 6 minutes
In 1995 Los Angeles, Filipino teen Shawn sets out to ask his best friend Nico’s sister to the prom that night. He does so by affixing onto himself a caricature of a Black person, and therefore must realize that doing so is wrong, on so many levels. Eventually, he gets help from his favorite rapper, and runs to apologize to Nico before Nico leaves for the prom himself. (SDFFF 2023)

Trailer:

Fox Eyes by Ella Jay Basco – USA | 2023 – 4 minutes
A short film about the appropriation of Asian Beauty features (particularly, the social media trend FOX EYES) and what that looks like from an Asian teenage girl’s perspective. (SDFFF 2023)

Gianna by Kait Schuster – USA | 2023 – 10 minutes
Gianna is a queer horror comedy following Gina, a Filipina Gemini doing her best, as she takes the advice of her sliding scale therapist to spend a day with her INNER SABOTEUR. Enter Gianna. Will they make peace, or does Gianna, like, literally want Gina dead? (SDFFF 2023)

Trailer:

Glimpse by Earl Paus – USA |2023 – 12 minutes
After a drug induced hook-up and near death experience, Gabriel, a queer melancholy musician, receives unsettling visions from their long-forgotten Pilipino ancestors. (SDFFF 2023)

Good Filipino Kids by Andrew Acedo – USA | 2023 – 18 minutes
Two Filipino lovers with different upbringings struggle to fulfill cultural and familial expectations, forcing them to face a crossroads in their relationship and individual identities. (SDFFF 2023)

Hito by Stephen Lopez – Philippines | 2023 – 22 minutes
Between nuclear reactors and military curfews, 14-year-old Jani lives in a dystopian world oppressively devoid of empathy. Together, she and her slippery new friend Kiefer the talking catfish gear up to strike a surreal blow for freedom. (Simon Hofmann) (SDFFF 2023)

Trailer:

For more information, please visit: https://sdfff.org/2023/