Festival Note
A pregnant woman, suspicious of her husband’s romantic relationship with his carabao, schemes to banish her four-legged rival and reclaim her title as the fairest creature of the land. Animal Lovers finds dark humor in the harshness of rural life, where desperation may lead people to become more beastly than animals.
Isang buntis na babae, na kahina-hinala sa romantikong relasyon ng kanyang asawa sa kanyang kalabaw, ay nagpaplano na palayasin ang kanyang karibal na may apat na paa at bawiin ang kanyang titulo bilang ang pinakamagandang hayop sa balat ng lupa. Ang Animal Lovers ay naghahanap ng malagim na katatawanan sa kalupitan ng buhay sa kanayunan, kung saan ang desperasyon ay maaaring humantong sa mga taong mas mabangis kaysa sa mga hayop.
Aedrian Araojo is a Mindanaoan filmmaker from Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay. He is best known for his 2016 short film, “Hondo,” which won the best short film at the QCinema International Film Festival and competed at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival. His other works include The Extinguished Light of Home (2013); When Curiosity Kills the Cat (2014); and Displaced (2020), an experimental war short film, which won the Best Director in the inaugural Bangsamoro Film Festival in Cotabato City and was chosen as one of the exhibition films in Cinemalaya 2020.