UMak students win Best Short Film in the 50th MMFF

The Institute of Arts and Design (IAD) students Selina Claire Napano, Michael Glenn Santos, and Gabriel Seth Carson won the Best Student Short Film award at the 50th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

Their animated film, “Saan Aabot ang 50 Pesos Mo?” a whimsical animated film that follows a cat student through a series of school misadventures with a ₱50 bill triumphed over nine other finalists from various higher education institutions across the Philippines.


Present to receive the award were Makati Mayor and UMak Board of Regents Chair, Hon. Mar-Len Abigail Binay, along with IAD representatives Florabel Berenguela-Esteban and Eduard Riparip.

Meanwhile, the films “A Delivery Rider” from Malabon City University and “PNB 12-50” from the University of the Philippines Mindanao won 2nd and 3rd Best Student Short Film respectively.

“Saan Aabot ang 50 Pesos Mo?” is among the finalists in the 2024 Film Development Council of the Philippines and MMFF Student Short Film Competition together with another IAD student short film “The 50th Soul”. Both short films were screened alongside the full-length MMFF 2024 entries in cinemas.

In 2019, Thomas Balila and Joaquin Nathan Bedaya’s “Dating App” was among the finalists in the 2019 MMFF Student Short Film Competition, in 2015, “The Seed”, a film by Joven Maniaol and Larreina Bianca Libuton was nominated as a finalist in the MMFF New Wave Animation Category while “Isip Bata” by Kieth Bercero and Eugene Ceriola landed as one of the top 5 finalists for Best Picture in the Animation Category of MMFF 2014.