Scene from “Sandra”
Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “Sandra” won best international film at the Timishort Film Festival in Romania recently. Established in 2009, the fest aims “to bring back the magic of watching film on the big screen.” In the fest’s website, organizers say short filmmaking “is the basis of any film theory.”
Manatad described the win as “surreal, but a nice birthday gift.” Manatad had just celebrated his birthday when organizers contacted him. “They asked me to send a video of an acceptance speech for the ceremony,” he said.
“Sandra” tells the story of “quirky girls who are trapped in a pseudosorority where violence and friendship are uncannily intertwined.”
The Romanian fest also featured another Filipino filmmaker Alyx Alyn Arumpac’s short film, “Garazs Inventory,” set in a small town in northern Hungary. —BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.