Director Arvin Belarmino reflects on Cannes 2025 in-competition short film ‘Agapito’
It was a Saturday night when Cannes reached out to Arvin Belarmino to deliver the news that Filipino short film Agapito, which he co-directed with Kyla Danelle Romero, made it to the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
He wasn’t able to pick up his phone. He then learned that his producer, Kristine De Leon, also got a call, but wasn’t able to take it as well. Belarmino had a hunch that the call might be for Adnan Al Rajeev's Ali, which he also co-wrote with Romero, since De Leon was the delegate contact for the Bangladeshi film.
Fortunately, Romero and producer Carlos Ortiz picked up another call. “Grabe si Kyla, hindi makahinga,” Belarmino recalls with PhilSTAR L!fe. “Nag-iiyakan kami sa call nun. Like, teka, totoo ba ‘to? Baka naba-Black Mirror lang ako?”
From Cavite, Belarmino then sped all the way to San Juan-based film production house 901 Studios, while processing how their small, tender vision propelled by a lean crew made the cut out of nearly 4,800 short films submitted to this year’s Cannes edition. “Sobrang wild nun, nag-iiyakan kami nun dito sa 901. As in lahat kami, nagyakapan talaga.”
Cannes journey
Belarmino and Romero have in the last few years established themselves as staple names at the Cannes Film Festival. For the third year in a row, the duo is heading to the spring festival, which runs until May 24, to premiere Agapito and Ali, competing for the Short Film Palme d’Or.
Belarmino began his Cannes journey in 2022. Ria, his upcoming debut feature about a folk-punk musician who enters the adult film industry to make ends meet, got selected for the festival’s talent residency program Cinéfondation, which has since been rebranded as La Cinéf. It went on to win the Centre National du Cinema pitch award.
A year later, Romero joined Belarmino as a co-writer when the same project got into La Fabrique Cinéma, another Cannes innovation hub. Then in 2024, the two capitalized on this writer-director momentum as Radikals, a body horror centered on a neophyte from a bizarre chicken-dance group, earned them the selection for the 63rd Cannes Critics’ Week short film competition. In the same year, Belarmino’s Silig, which saw him teaming up with Cambodian director Rithy Lomorpich, screened under the Directors’ Fortnight, also a Cannes sidebar.
The gestation period of Agapito, which marks the duo’s first collaboration as co-directors, began when Belarmino met director Jon Galvez of the 901 Studios in March last year, during the second iteration of CineShorts—a short film exhibition that Belarmino has been programming as a mentor at the Asia Pacific Film Institute.
Galvez then offered Belarmino the opportunity to work on a project together. “Sabi niya, ‘Arvin, tara gawa tayo ng short film. We would like to produce something for you,’” Belarmino tells PhilSTAR L!fe.
But since they were already gearing up for the filming of Ria, Belarmino had to wait for the greenlight from De Leon, whom he already worked with in Radikals.
“Si Kristine kasi parang nanay ko talaga yan,” he continues. “Lagi akong nagpapaalam ng mga galaw ko. ‘Pag may offers sa akin na films, I have to ask her if babangga ba kasi siya ang may hawak ng schedule ko. Para na siyang manager. Pero siyempre very caring lang din talaga siya sa development ng Ria.”
Cut to the Cannes premiere of Radikals, where Belarmino chanced upon Galvez, who was with director Adolf Alix Jr., at the festival’s film market. The conversation came up again, with Belarmino noticing how persistent Galvez was. And so after they headed back to the Philippines and did the casting call for Ria, Belarmino finally made up his mind and eventually got the go signal from De Leon.
Belarmino saw Agapito as a testing ground for his debut feature, which he will shoot in two weeks following Cannes. It might also be his last short film before devoting his time to making full-length features. “Hindi ko alam kung kailan ulit. Because after Ria, I think sunod-sunod na feature film na ‘yung gagawin ko.”
The inspiration behind Agapito
Set in a knackered bowling alley that still features manual pinsetters, Agapito tracks the labored days of Mira (Nour Hooshmand), the duckpin alley’s manager, who, alongside her fellow workers, performs an intimate ritual during the monthly visits of her older sibling Junior (André Miguel), a person living with cerebral palsy and developmental delays.
The story owes its provenance to Belarmino’s brother, the film’s namesake, who also has special needs. “Close kami pero minsan nalulungkot ako kasi sobrang busy ko, like kaunting time lang talaga ‘yung nabibigay ko sa kanya,” Belarmino admits.
“And I really love him,” he continues. “‘Pag kausap ko siya, nare-relax ako kasi siyempre, we don’t talk about deep things. Alam mo 'yun? It’s just like what he did for the whole day; ako, kung ano rin ginawa ako. So he’s the reason why I keep things grounded. And he’s also one of the reasons why I don’t take small things for granted.”
For Romero, though, the movie is an ode to her late father, Danny, who died in her teenage years and was a sports coach who put up a multi-sports facility in Imus, Cavite. She would go there every day after school to play badminton, ping pong, billiards, among other sports she enjoyed.
Featuring the bowling aspect in the movie also has to do with a local documentary about a group of pin boys in Marikina that Romero saw. “And then parang nag-ignite ‘yong fire na, 'Why not try to write a narrative [film] about the pin boys?” Belarmino says.
“And then it felt na, 'I think I want to co-direct this with Kyla this time',” the director adds. “Since sa kanya nanggaling ‘yung idea of bowling, I think she deserves this spot. I mean, she deserves this opportunity to direct something with me in a crazy way.”
That the directors had no idea about bowling also factored into their decision of exploring the sport through the movie. “And I think that’s the beauty of it,” Belarmino explains. “Feeling ko naman ‘yung film is [an] exploration of new things, new culture. Kasi para sa akin, kung gagawa ka ng isang pelikula na alam na alam mo na kung anong elements ng material, I think it’s gonna be boring. Parang feeling ko hindi magta-thrive or hindi manganganak ng ideas.”
But what they actually aimed to submit to Cannes was Ali, after working with Adnan as their co-producer in Radikals. “As in talagang nagkaroon kami ng talks na para kaming nag-heart-to-heart, para kaming nag-workshop sa Cannes,” Belarmino shares. “Kasi I also want to help him because he helped us. Tapos ako, ginagawa ko ‘yun out of love because he’s so kind and he’s so genuine.”
In fact, it was a scene that Belarmino originally wrote for his second, still-untitled feature that seeded the concept for Ali. “And then Adnan was so blown away [by] the concept. And then he told me [that] we should connect it to the culture of the regional parts of Bangladesh. And the brainstorming was so seamless and very genuine.”
'For some reason, the universe is giving us Cannes'
Filmed around November last year, which coincided with the production for Ali, the team intended to shoot Agapito in the Marikina bowling alley, but were denied access. Fortunately, Mark Vicente, a crew member who’s also part of 901 Studios, came across another manual duckpin alley in Bulacan.
The team immersed and did some interviews when they visited the location to properly represent the workers’ lived experiences. “Sobrang satisfied nga sila for them to work [doon] hanggang tumanda sila,” observes Belarmino. “‘Yong mga naglalaro dun, ‘yung competition every year, they always look forward to it. So it’s really about the community, a very communal event annually. And siyempre ‘yung pay din, ang ganda nung pay.”
Belarmino also reached out to his longtime friend, musician John Angelo Diamos, who also did the score for his old short film, to use Humayo Ka, a gospel song the latter composed, for a watershed scene in Agapito.
“When I heard this song, I knew that I will use [it] in some of my future shorts,” Belarmino says. “Si Gelo, sobrang supportive niya sa mga independent artists, like talagang sabi niya, ‘Sige, go.’ Gusto niya pa nga ibigay nang libre. Sabi ko, ‘Hindi, babayaran ka ng 901. Maganda ‘yung masterpiece mo, you deserve to be paid.’"
The result is a work that leans on magical realism, experiments with its visual lexicon, and surprises even as it renders an achingly familiar tale of everyday labor in the Philippines—one that is also motored by a sense of solidarity and community. As it stands, Agapito continues Belarmino and Romero’s foray into personal histories, as if to invoke their many, transient selves, and how they intervene in their broader thematic fixations.
In many ways, the duo have seemingly perfected the Cannes formula for the short medium, but Belarmino presumes otherwise. “[As an] arthouse filmmaker, I just wish my luck working with other festivals. It’s just that, for some reason, the universe is giving us Cannes.”
As Agapito’s international debut happens, nothing warms Belarmino’s heart more than sharing the prestigious moment with Romero, his real-life partner, alongside the film’s all-Filipino cast and crew. Earlier this month, the team launched crowdfunding efforts, like the screenings held at Sine Pop, Cubao, to raise necessary funds shouldering their travel expenses.
Belarmino gladly says that the core cast and crew made it to the Cannes premiere. “It’s really a blessing, and we are so honored to somehow represent the country,” he tells L!fe, “and how sweet it is to experience that with the actors na sobrang deserve.”
