More Than a Film: How Student Filmmakers Kept Salbabida Afloat

There are films made with certainty, and there are films made in the middle of uncertainty—when the story is still changing, resources are limited, the deadline is closing in, and nobody quite knows what the finished work will become.

Salbabida, a short film directed by Jeff Balsamo, a 3rd-year Bachelor of Arts in Sociology student from the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), belongs to the latter.

What began as a Microshort Entry for the Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) PALAKASAN 2026 under the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), would eventually become one of the competition's standout works, earning multiple awards and reaching film festivals beyond the university.

But its success is not a story of one director arriving with a perfect vision and executing it exactly as planned. It is, in many ways, the opposite. It is the story of a group of students who chose to make something ambitious despite having very little certainty that they could pull it off. And for Balsamo, that may be what makes the film worth remembering.

Something that, against uncertainty, managed to stay afloat.

It started with a beach. The idea for Salbabida did not begin as a political film.

When the team first gathered, the concept was simple: a film that could breathe, that could rest. But the world around them refused simplicity. The beach became a metaphor for privilege, for escape, for the uneasy calm of those who sail while others struggle beneath.

From that image, Salbabida began to take shape—not as a protest, but as a reflection. Its politics grew naturally from the lives of those who made it. The film became a quiet confrontation with inequality, a meditation on power, and a question about who gets to stay afloat when the water turns rough.

The title Salbabida evokes a lifebuoy—something that keeps a person afloat when the water becomes dangerous. But the film’s politics complicate that image.

Who gets the lifebuoy? Who has to struggle without one? Who is expected to keep everyone else afloat?

These questions sit at the heart of Salbabida.

It is not simply a film about survival—it is a film about responsibility. About privilege. About the quiet courage of students who, despite exhaustion and uncertainty, chose to make something that could speak beyond them.

In the end, Salbabida did exactly what its name promised.

It kept a group of young filmmakers’ belief in what they could create afloat long enough for the rest of the world to see it.

That belief carried the film beyond PALAKASAN 2026, where it won 2nd Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Production Design, Best Sound Design, and Best Screenplay.

It went on to qualify for national and international festivals: the 13th Nabunturan Independent Film Exhibition (Shorts Competition), the 16th Binisaya International Film Festival 2026 (Shorts Category), and the 5th Oroquieta Film Festival (Lumayagan Shorts Competition).

At the Pista ng Pelikulang Siklab 2026, Salbabida continued its winning streak—earning Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Screenplay, and Best Music and Sound Design.

From a beach imagined in exhaustion to screens across festivals, Salbabida became more than a student project.

It became proof that even in uncertainty, art can float—and carry with it the voices of those who are drowning.

From a beach imagined in exhaustion to screens across festivals, Salbabida became more than a student project.

It became proof that even in uncertainty, art can float—and carry with it the voices of those who dared to make it.

Written by Michaela Emanuele Sinto
Proofread by Fame Orong, Harris Donmoen Iligan, and Bea Faye Eumague
Layout by Martina Real