Next-gen filmmakers take spotlight in 2025 QCShorts program

A fresh wave of young and diverse storytelling talent is set to take the spotlight as the QCinema International Film Festival unveils the official lineup of filmmakers for its 2025 QCShorts program.

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With a record-breaking 285 submissions from Filipino filmmakers across the globe, this year's batch brings together six distinct short films that showcase bold, new voices in Philippine cinema.

For the 2025 edition, the program has awarded each of the six selected filmmakers a production grant of P500,000. These films will make their world premieres at QCinema, which runs from Nov. 14 to 23.

"The voices behind this year's QCShorts program are composed mostly of new filmmaking talent — as over half the roster of directors and producers are still undergraduate students at various universities," said Jason Tan Liwag, head of short film programming at QCinema.

"It's exciting because there's clearly a new generation of filmmakers, most of whom were born in the 2000s and have only had a limited number of shorts under their belt, who are seeking support. We're happy to help and introduce them to the Filipino and international community."

The selected filmmakers and their projects are Norvin de los Santos with "Hoy, Hoy, Ingat!", Lauviah Caliboso with "Ours Was A Timeless Night Burning," Racquel "Lysa" Catolico and Jazmine Gin Pateña with "RUNO!", Dale with "Si Tina: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba-Daba," Gabriela Serrano and Mariana Serrano with "Surface Tension," and Gab Rosique with "Yelo."

"Rather than having similar thematic preoccupations or formal patterns, the current crop of filmmakers are creating self-contained worlds where their characters are trapped between the world they were promised and the world as it is," Liwag noted.

"More fascinatingly, all short films in the lineup contend with this generation's evolving and disintegrating notions of home — the ways we are displaced from it, return to it and transform along with it."