QCinema names 2026 QCShorts grantees

It started with a staggering 395 scripts from Filipino filmmakers all over the world, but only five made the cut.

This year’s QCShorts grantees are trying to survive the rifts that define modern life. Whether it’s a suicidal monster splitting in two or an Ilocano healer hiding in his mother’s clothes, these films share a common thread: the widening gap between the individual and the systems—families, faiths, and bodies—that are supposed to hold them together.

Armed with a ₱700,000 grant each, these five filmmakers are set to prove that the most "quintessentially Filipino" stories are often the ones told from the fringes.

A haunting in Ilocos

Carla Pulido Ocampo is no stranger to the winner’s circle (you might remember her award-sweeping fantasy Tokwifi), but her new project, Agsangit Laeng ti Al-alia (A Ghost Can Only Howl), feels even more personal.

This Ilocano period drama follows a feminine herbolario (healer) who wants to join the revolution. To get to the front lines, he wears his mother’s clothes—but his biggest hurdle isn't the war outside; it’s the madness of his own father at home.

Queer bodies and dark comedy

If you think you’ve seen everything the aswang genre has to offer, Rodiell Veloso is here to upend that. In Run Shirley Run!, a suicidal manananggal in Cagayan de Oro literally splits in two. Her top half wants to end it all, while her bottom half is determined to keep living.

Set against the backdrop of an ukay-ukay depot, this "queer body horror" promises chaos, bumbling monster hunters, and a heavy dose of dark, absurd humor.

Faith and disappearing idols

Toni Cañete, a powerhouse from Cagayan de Oro with a shelf full of Gawad Alternatibo awards, is bringing us Maanaa Kanimo (With You). The story kicks off when a statue of Mama Mary goes missing, sending a tight-knit community into a tailspin. At the center of it all are two sisters forced to navigate the messy intersection of their own identities and the rigid expectations of faith and morality.

Love as a transaction

Maki Makilan takes us into the intimate, often painful world of Body Works. In this lesbian boudoir drama, a laid-off dishwasher turns to paid romance just to stay afloat. It’s a story about survival and domestic migration, exploring what happens when a simple business transaction starts feeling a lot like real, demanding love.

Animation and Estrangement

Rounding out the five is Clister Santos, an artist whose previous work has already traveled as far as the BFI Flare in London. With Sana’y Nandito Ka, Santos uses animation to tell a "slice-of-life" story. It focuses on a young man’s emotional reunion with his mother after six years of silence—a look at what it takes to bridge a half-decade of estrangement.

With a total of ₱3.5 million on the line, QCinema artistic director Ed Lejano notes that this batch is deeply rooted in genre, using myths and satire to make sense of a world that often feels "absurd and unjust."

You can catch these world premieres when the 14th QCinema International Film Festival kicks off from 13 to 22 November 2026.