“Bold Eagle,” the experimental sex dramedy by director Whammy Alcazaren that won Best Short film at the QCinema International Film Festival 2022, has been selected for Sundance Film Festival 2024’s Midnight Short Film Program. Out of over a record 12,000 entries submitted this year, “Bold Eagle” will be screening alongside 53 other short films in competition. The news was announced on the filmfest’s website on Wednesday, December 13, Manila time.
The Sundance Film Festival, founded by actor Robert Redford, is the largest independent film festival in the United States. Held in Park City, Utah, it attracts more than 40,000 attendees every year. The Midnight Short Film Program is the section where the festival showcases the most creative and visually innovative short films from around the world.
With a running time of 16 minutes, “Bold Eagle” tells the story of Bold, an “alter” or someone who anonymously posts nudes and performs lascivious acts over the Internet. When Bold suffers an existential crisis during the pandemic, he seeks comfort in mind-altering drugs, in his “talking” cat and in online sex with strange men from the Internet. Caught in this tangle of technology and social media, Bold wonders to his cat, “Can I find my place in the world?” Featured in the film are the voices of Gio Gahol and Ricky Davao.
QCinema jurors hailed Alcazaren’s work for “… articulating a timely and queer political critique.” At Montreal’s 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival where it won Best International Short, “Bold Eagle” was described as a “rare species of short film that seizes you.”
The film’s quirky audacity immediately found advocates in the Sundance selection committee. “‘Bold Eagle is fantastic!’ enthused Irene Suico Soriano, a Filipino American programmer at Sundance. “I love how it reveals our present time and takes viewers on this irreverent, clever and riotous journey,” she elaborated.
“Bold Eagle” will have its Sundance premiere on January 22, 2024. Previously, it was screened at several international filmfests, including the prestigious New York Film Festival, Switzerland’s Winterthur International Short Film Festival and Fantasia International Fantastic Film Festival where it won Best International Short Film.