PH-edited short film wins Palme d’Or in Cannes

At the awards ceremony: Carlo Francisco Manatad (right), Qiu Yang (third from right) and the “A Gentle Night” team

Chinese filmmaker Qiu Yang’s “A Gentle Night,” which won the Palme d’Or in the short film competition of the 70th Cannes Film Festival, was edited by a Filipino, Carlo Francisco Manatad of Quantum Post.

Manatad related that he had met Yang in Clermont-Ferrand, a university city in central France that hosts a short film festival, a few years back.

“Qiu is a good friend. Our first collaboration was a Chinese film he produced and I edited,” Manatad, who is in France, told the Inquirer via Facebook Messenger. “A few months later, he asked me to edit ‘A Gentle Night.’”

The film, he recounted, is about a mother searching for her daughter during the Chinese New Year.

He recalled: “I worked on the film in Manila, and Qiu flew in during the editing process.”

“A Gentle Night”

Manatad is a filmmaker himself who had an entry, the short film “Jodilerks dela Cruz, Employee of the Month,” in the International Critics’ Week section of this year’s Cannes.

Although “Jodilerks” didn’t bring home a prize, Straydogs acquired it, while Kinoscope picked up Manatad’s three previous short films (“Junilyn Has,” “Sandra” and “Fatima Marie Torres and the Invasion of Space Shuttle Pinas 25”) for international sales and distribution.

According to Manatad, “Jodilerks” “will be screened in different European festivals in June … with its Romanian premiere set this month, too. It is also available on the website Festival Scope for a limited time, like the other short films that competed in the International Critics’ Week.” —BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.