PUREGOLD Cinepanalo Film Festival Showcased Good Short Films

It's the weekend and after the really fun Puregold Cinepanalo Film Festival Awards Night, we took time to watch the student short films this Sunday afternoon before they end screenings. 

Short films are, short. If you couldn't get your point or story across, I would feel it would fail, I think the few ones I saw were actually good. Super happy about how Puregold Cinepanalo Film Festival became a great platform for regional film makers to showcase what they can do despite the odds. I didn't even need to read the subtitles in order to understand them.

Dito, Dati was about memories. They had a short film made on VHS recorded tapes but in the end they lost it all. Then they reminisced where it all happened, how it happened. It played on family ties, filial love and what lengths you would go for them. 

Ritche Films Production on the other hand offered Sine Sine, a short film about friends in the Bicolano dialect. A supposed date plan was about to go into shambles because the local movie house called Obet's Sine Sine was closing down. It was cute, mostly about puppy love. When the plan to watch a movie didn't pan out, they made their own film. Obet's Sine Sine was back in business, and the date continued. It made the folks inside the cinema giggle. No wonder this won awards. Their soundtrack was fun and catchy too. 

Daog/Pildi was another regional short film. In Cebuano, they get to tell the adventures they had in arcade gaming (a thing I adore). It was old school, had a little cute and romantic story line. 

SAMPIE was eye candy. It's a coming of age film that had elements of a cartoon (in 2D) about a mermaid, a gay one. It's also about family  and the little joys of life. It is also about acceptance. Pretty good short film, no wonder it won awards too. 

"Our One and Only Baboy" was about an elderly couple, one stricken with cancer but chose to give up and just enjoy his vices. The lone pig was opted to be sold for money, for his medical needs and finances... But they treated it like their child (they didn't have kids). His wife was not so keen in doing it. The film has flaws, the panning shots made me dizzy, but it was certainly a touching film. It's about dreams, the idea of true happiness, love and what matters most.

If you can catch the other films today, go do it. Or maybe wait for a future release in platforms, because from the looks of it, they've got a lot of people out there that would really appreciate it.

Thanks to Puregold who's doing this annually, the ones who made it possible to showcase regional films in actual cinemas. I loved the shorts!

Puregold Cinepanalo Film Festival 2025 Awards Night: Winners Bared

Puregold's Cinepanalo Film Festival is certainly getting bigger by the year. This 2025, they've got a lot of full length and short film entries that have been watched at Gateway Mall 2's cinemas this past week. They've been extended a week after the star ridden awards night which has gotten some of my personal bets win major awards. 

Though I didn't get to list some of the winners, I've taken note of those that I've heard from the back of the room because yes, they were all cheering quite loud at the Elements tent in Centris, Quezon City.

Here are the winners:

Panalo sa Film Poster
Student Short Film Category
Checkmate
Full Length
Journeyman

Panalo sa Brand Inclusion
Student Short Film Category
Champ Green
G!
Full Length
Journeyman

Pinakapanalong Promosyon Ng Pelikula
Student Short Film Category
Checkmate tied with Taympers

Pinakapanalong Awitin
Student Short Film Category
Sine Sine (Suga, Camera, Saad by Jonathan Rey Sartorio and Lloyd Martin Villacortes Arce, Performed by Jonathan Rey ROTT Sartorio)
Full Length
Diko Pinili Co-Love

Pinakapanalong Sound Design
Student Short Film Category
Champ Green (Elan Idioma)
Full Length
Salum

Panalo sa Editing
Student Short Film Category
Jose Andy Sales of G!
Full Length
Vanessa Ubas de Leon of Co-love

Panalo Musical Scoring
Student Short Film Category
Uwian (Len Calvo)
Full Length
Salum

Panalong Ensemble
Student Short Film Category
Sine Sine
Full Length
Tigkiliwi

Panalo Sa Production Design
Student Short Film Category
Uwian (Andrea Jane Perang)
Full Length
Salum

Panalong Cinematography
Student Short Film Category
Dan En Pointe
Full Length
Olsen's Day tied with Journeyman

Responsableng Paglikha
Student Short Film Category
3rd Place 123 Strike
2nd Place Sine Sine
1st Place Dan En Pointe
Full Length
Journeyman

Special Citation from Mowelfund
Student Short Film Category
Champ Green
Full Length
Olsen's Day

Pinakapanalong Kwento
Student Short Film Category
Champ Green Clyde Cuizon Gamale
Full Length
Tara Illenberger of Tigkiwili

Panalong Pangalawang Aktor
Student Short Film Category
Sol Eugenio of Champ Green
Full Length
Jeffrey Jinuma for Tigkiwili

Panalong Pangalawang Aktres
Student Short Film Category
Uzziel Delamide of Uwian
Full Length
Gabby Padilla of Tigkiliwi

Panalo sa Manonood
Student Short Film Category
Sisenta
Full Length
Co-Love

Pinaka Panalong Aktor
Student Short Film Category
Lucas Martin of Sam Pie and Jasper John of Juan Dela Cruz
Full Length
Khalil Ramos and JP Larroder of Olsen's Day and Tigkiliwi

Best Actress
Student Short Film Category
Geraldine Villamil for Uwian
Full Length
Ruby Ruiz of Tikiliwi

Always Panalo Film (embody the brand's values)
Student Short Film
Sampie
Full Length
Journeyman tied with Fleeting

Panalo sa International Jury
Journeyman

Panalong Director

Student Short Film Category
Vhan Marco Molacruz of Uwian

Full Length
JP Habac for Olsen's Day

Pinakapanalong Maikling Pelkula
Champ Green
(Jury Prize) Dela Cruz Juan P.

Pinakapanalong Pelikula
Salum
(Jury Prize) Tigkiliwi

The films will be showcased at the Gateway Mall 2 Cineplex 18 cinemas until March 25th. If you haven't watched an entry yet, or haven't finished watching the shorts and full length films, head on to the mall and purchase tickets. It's not expensive and the entries are pretty good. It will feed your hunger for films especially since people are flocking back to cinemas this year. 

Personal Collection Continues Championing Women

A huge chunk of businesses in the Philippines is still comprised of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. It's a driving force, a significant amount of which are owned by women. This goes the same with Personal Collection, where dealers are mostly women that are empowered by the brand's accessible, low cost but quality merchandise. They contribute a lot to society.

Personal Collection recognizes this and has continued to help women in their direct selling business by having them own their individual enterprise as dealers, all providing a community that supports in their goals to succeed in life. They remain affordable to make sure they would be able to start their journey and grow their businesses.

Their growth is seen as a catalyst to improve the lives of their families, then continue to inspire others as they do other things so they could put food on the table and have their children go to school and make their dreams come true. Personal Collection is also very flexible, knowing mothers have other responsibilities too, they can earn on their own time and continue to contribute to the country's economy as part of MSME's. Go to personalcollection.com.ph if you want to be part of the movement.

DigiP|us Leading The Way in Responsible Gam|ng

Looks like the folks from DigiP|us are not only multiplying the fun but doing it responsibly through one of their apps tools made to impose responsible gam!ng, an industry first across their subsidiaries B!ngoP|us, ArenaP|us, Sp!nP|us, and fun Gam3Z0ne.

If you check these channels, they now contain a Responsible Gam!ng tab that limits and schedules usage so folks that are using it could pause at certain levels done before p|aying. Self regulation certainly is a good way to protect themselves, something they've talked about lengthily during their previous event Pu$ta de Pe|igro which they launched a couple months back. 

They did this together with PAGC0R to make sure they remain responsible while engaging in entertainment activities like these. They will continue to do this as part of their efforts, together with their pursuit of education and their causes. This certainly is a good way to promote responsible and accountable digital entertainment, which is why they continue to lead until now.