CARLO FRANCISCO MANATAD

Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “Jodilerks dela Cruz: Employee of the Month,” about a gas station attendant’s last day at work, won in December 2017 the best short film award in the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition of the 28th Singapore International Film Festival.

Manatad’s hard work paid off, but making the short wasn’t always smooth-sailing, he relates: “It was the time constraints and the logistics of the film that posed a challenge. Since we were working with some crew members [from Thailand and Singapore], we had to adjust accordingly.”

The writer-director elucidates, “The locations were changed during the day of production, so preparations for the film went back to zero.”

That wasn’t all, he adds: “Another hurdle was the fact that the story needed to be told, but without dialogue—[it depended largely on] the quirks and skills of the actors,” he relates. “But, in the end, everything went well.”

“Jodilerks,” which beat 14 other short films in the Singapore fest, stars Angeli Bayani as the titular character. Last year, Manatad’s comedy short “Fatima Marie Torres and the Invasion of Space Shuttle Pinas 25,” likewise received a string of accolades.

But what, exactly, do these honors signify for him? “Awards really don’t dictate the film’s success, which depends more on how the film affected its audience. [But awards] boost the morale of the people who worked on the project, to make more films, and to inspire us to always be better at what we do.