Directors' Factory - Philippines

This Cannes showcase of short films has been running since 2013 - with a Covid hiatus - with a different country focus in each edition. This year the selected country is the Philippines and eight filmmakers have been paired up - four from within the Philippines each working with someone from outside their homeland.

The shorts are all by emerging filmmakers who are all working on their first or second features.

This year’s Directors’ Factory features, click the titles below to read the full reviews:

• Cold Cut - A student waiting for a talent competition finds things change after a strange encounter with a butcher
• Silig - A terminally ill woman returns to her hometown on a mission
• Nightbirds - The mystical meets the everyday as a bird god helps a woman
• Walay Balay - A conflict-displaced woman and her daughter consider what ‘home’ means to them

The upcoming features to look out for from the directors are:

• Hum by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan - Esther, a mountain guide, searches for her husband, who banished himself to live among the beasts.

• Amoeba by Siyou Tan - In a repressive city-state, four classmates at an all-girls school rebel by forming a triad gang.

• Ria by Alvin Belarmino - Manila. One week prior to the demolition of the sole surviving home in a land-grabbed neighbourhood, Ria, a young woman,tries to save her punk commune.
• Romdoul, The Evening Fragrance by Lomorpich Rithy aka YoKi - A mother and daughter, separated for many years, reunite in astrange series of events and begin to confront the troubles of their past.
• Karaoke Dreaming by Maria Estela Paiso - At the company's New Year’s eve party, a new employe etravels through her coworkers’ memories via a sentient karaoke machine.
• To Kill The One You Love by Ashok Vish - The myth of Ayyappan, a Hindu deity born to two male gods,provides the inspiration for the volatile obsession that develops between DEV, a middle-aged rickshaw driver, and MADHU, an affluent young artist
• Heaven Help Us by Eve Baswel - Driven to fulfill Imelda Marcos’ vanity project, construction workers toil tirelessly on the Manila Film Center until disaster strikes- trapping them alive beneath the concrete ruins. As theMarcos regime continue to bury them, their fight for survival uncovers a nation's shameful secrets and dark truths
• Kaali, Depth Of Darkness by Gogularaajan Rajendran - 1966, a palm oil plantation bordering a lush forest on CareyIsland, Malaysia. Kali, a young plantation worker once saved by the forest as a child finally gets pregnant after years of trying.However, things take a dark turn when she ignores the forest’s plea call for help in return