PH short film wins in New York

ANDREI Fajarito

Phil Giordano’s short film, “Supot,” won the grand jury prize at the 2016 New York Screenplay Contest, “a global [tilt] designed to launch careers and provide recognition and network opportunities to the world’s best new voices in writing for film and television.”

According to its website, the competition’s “goal is to identify and award the very best screenwriters from around the world.”

Based on Giordano’s thesis script at the New York University-Tisch Asia, “Supot” tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who’s reluctant to undergo circumcision—a rite of passage among Filipino men.

“Supot” also merited a good review from UK Film Review. The website’s critic Andrew Young lauds “Giordano’s measured approach and lack of moral judgment [which] really leaves its mark.”

Young likewise commends Giordano’s “Hitchcockian” technique in the circumcision scenes, “using sound and reaction rather than full-on gore to make the audience wince.”

Young points out that the short film “lets the audience do the work and is perhaps all the better for it… beyond its deceptively simple narrative, [it] has a lot to say. Heavy stuff, but expertly handled.”

“Supot,” which features John Arcilla, Mercedes Cabral and Andrei Fajarito in the cast, will compete in the short film section of the Busan International Film Festival, to be held in South Korea from Oct. 6 to 15. Bayani San Diego Jr.