Four Benilde Films at Cinemalaya 2026
Benilde will not be represented by just one film at Cinemalaya this August. Four works by members of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde faculty and alumni community are in competition, and they could hardly be more different from one another.
One follows two Filipino-Palestinian mothers rebuilding their idea of home after fleeing Gaza. Another turns political complicity inside a provincial family into black comedy. The other two follow an older woman looking for love after another visa rejection and three women moving through a Manila where people can no longer dream.
Quick facts
- Festival: Cinemalaya 22: Reel Reflections
- Dates: August 6 to 18, 2026
- Benilde-connected entries: Four
- Full-length films: A.ni.mál and Status: Rejected
- Short films: The River Flows in Different Places and Elenita Elena Elaine
Lot-lot Hermosura follows two mothers displaced from Gaza
Benilde Film faculty member Lot-lot Hermosura enters the short film competition with The River Flows in Different Places, a documentary about Net and Maha, two Filipino-Palestinian mothers forced to flee Gaza.
The film is presented as a family diary. Through interviews, family photographs, home videos, and illustrations, Net and Maha recount their repatriation to the Philippines and their attempt to reconstruct the meaning of home in a country that feels both familiar and foreign.
Its focus is intentionally intimate. Instead of allowing war and displacement to remain distant figures in a headline, the documentary stays with the memories, relationships, and cultural identities carried by the people who have to begin again.
Before its Cinemalaya selection, The River Flows in Different Places received Best Short Film at the inaugural Films for Peace competition organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
Dustin Celestino turns political complicity into satire
From displacement, the lineup moves to another form of power. Benilde Film educator Dustin Celestino competes in the full-length category with A.ni.mál, a black comedy and social satire set in an unnamed provincial town.
The premise begins with a single video. Lily, the daughter of the local mayor, returns home with footage showing a powerful governor and longtime family friend abusing his dog.
The mayor wants to shield his ally from scandal. His wife sees an opportunity to expose the governor to his own wife. Lily threatens to release the video unless the governor gives the dog to her. The footage may show one clear act of abuse, but the film’s larger subject is the household that immediately begins calculating what the truth is worth.
The cast includes Maxine Ignacio, Frances Makil-Ignacio, Jojit Lorenzo, Bituin Escalante, Reymund Domingo, and Anthony Falcon.
According to the material provided by Benilde, financial limitations nearly forced the production to withdraw. Celestino and his team instead filmed the project using an iPhone 17 Pro Max and redirected the planned camera-rental budget toward paying the cast and crew.
The production describes its visual approach as inspired by the stripped-down principles of Dogme 95, with natural light, close observational framing, and dialogue carrying much of the tension.
Vahn Pascual makes his feature directorial debut
Benilde Film alumnus Vahn Leinard C. Pascual makes his feature directorial debut with Status: Rejected, a family comedy-drama about an older woman who wants to be seen as more than the roles she has spent her life performing for other people.
Ruby Ruiz plays Virginia “Biring” Divinagracia, a 69-year-old widow whose fourth United States visa application has been rejected. She hopes to move abroad and reunite with her son, but another denial appears to close that path.
An old friend introduces Biring to online dating, where she meets an American man who offers attention, affection, and what may be another route to the life she wants.
What begins as a practical response to a visa rejection becomes a story about loneliness, visibility, and the emotional lives older women are rarely allowed to have onscreen.
Ruiz is joined by Alessandra de Rossi, Beverly Salviejo, and Yani Villarosa.
Gabriela Serrano imagines a dreamless Manila
Benilde Multimedia Arts alumna Gabriela Serrano returns to Cinemalaya with Elenita Elena Elaine, a science-fiction drama unfolding over one night in an alternate Manila where humanity has lost the ability to dream.
The film connects three women whose lives appear separate: a pop idol preparing for her final televised performance, a recent graduate packing her childhood room before leaving for work abroad, and a call center employee whose voice disappears into the noise around her.
Their ordinary routines and internal worlds begin to overlap as each woman approaches a form of departure, whether from a career, a home, or a version of herself.
Serrano directed and edited the film and co-wrote its screenplay with her sister, Mariana Serrano. The cast includes Agot Isidro, Gabby Padilla, and Mariana.
When is Cinemalaya 2026?
The 22nd Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, carrying the theme Reel Reflections, runs from August 6 to 18, 2026.
Red Carpet Cinemas at Shangri-La Plaza serves as one of the festival’s principal venues. The materials provided also list screenings at Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Ayala Malls Circuit, Glorietta, Market! Market!, TriNoma, and Gateway Cineplex 18.
Individual screening schedules and ticketing details for the four films were not included in the material. Moviegoers should check the official Cinemalaya website and its official social media accounts once the final schedules are released.
For Benilde, the four selections are less a single institutional statement than a useful sample of how differently its filmmakers are working. These are stories about home, power, visibility, and departure, told through documentary, satire, family comedy-drama, and science fiction.