This year’s Cinemalaya short feature finalists have finally arrived

What’s one thing a pandemic won’t stop? Our answer: art.

This year’s edition of the Cinemalaya Film Festival is just one example of that, with its festivities moving from the Cultural Center of the Philippines to the confines of our homes. This weekend, the short film finalists were finally announced.

While we aren’t cozying up in a theater seat anytime soon, expect the same kind of caliber and range for the 10 featured short films. Janina Gacosta and Cheska Marfori’s “Ang Gasgas Na Plaka ni Lolo Bert” centers on a closeted gay man in his 60s living with HIV while a man from the rice terraces meets a 1950s star trapped inside a TV in Carla Pulido Ocampo’s “Tokwifi.” There’s also Joanna Vasquez Arong’s “Ang Pagpakalma sa Unos” which looks at the aftermath of a typhoon for a small town and Sonny Calvento’s “Excuse Me Miss, Miss, Miss” that centers on the daily life of a mall salesgirl.

The rest of the impressive roster includes James Mayo’s “Fatigued,” Martika Ramirez Escobar’s “Living Things,” Hubert Tibi’s “Pabasa Kan Pasyon,” Richard Salvadico and Arlie Sumagaysay’s “Utwas,” Jan Andrei Cobey’s “The Slums” and Reeden Fajardo’s “Quing Lalam Ning Aldo.”

Cinemalaya has also announced its new festival dates, which is now happening on Aug. 7 to 16. According to its social media channels, more details on the online festival will be revealed soon.

Still from “Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss”