Arvin Belarmino has been building toward this for over a decade. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has only just caught up.
For more than a decade, his career moved in a steady line through film festivals, small wins, and quiet but consistent international recognition. Nothing about it felt sudden. It only looks obvious in hindsight.
The Filipino filmmaker is now among 529 artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2026 class under the Short Films branch. The invitation gives him the right to vote in future Academy Awards. The Academy cited his works Agapito and Hinakdal in the announcement.
A career shaped in fragments
Belarmino’s early short film Kyel made its mark at Cinemalaya in 2015. Two years later, Nakaw won Best Short Film at the Gawad Urian Awards and went on to screen in Brussels and Seoul, bringing his work into the international circuit for the first time.
By 2020, Tarang had pushed him further outward, winning Best Film at the Interfilm Berlin Short Film Festival and confirming his presence in European short film programming.
The following years were less about single breakthroughs and more about steady expansion.
In 2022, he entered the Cinéfondation Residency in Paris with his feature project Ria, which received the CNC Pitch Award. He was also selected for the Locarno Filmmakers Academy during the 75th Locarno Film Festival, placing him inside two of Europe’s most selective development spaces.
In 2023, Hinakdal stood out at Cinemalaya, winning Best Screenplay, Audience Award, and NETPAC Award. The film, about a zombie family living in isolation until a human intrudes into their fragile world, reinforced what has become a defining trait of his work: genre ideas used to explore emotional and social tension rather than spectacle.
Then came Cannes.
In 2024, Belarmino appeared twice in the same festival season, with Radikals in Critics’ Week and Silig in Directors’ Fortnight through the Directors’ Factory program. For many filmmakers, one Cannes selection is a career shift. Two in one year signals momentum that is already global.
That momentum carried into Agapito, co-directed with Kyla Danelle Romero. The short film premiered in competition at Cannes 2025 and later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. It follows Mira, who manages a fading bowling alley and decides to close early on the last day of the month while waiting for a visitor who never arrives in the way she expects.
It is this film, alongside Hinakdal, that the Academy specifically referenced in its invitation.
A seat in a changing Academy
The Academy’s 2026 intake includes 529 invitees from 60 countries and territories, part of its continued expansion of international membership.
If all accept, total membership will rise to more than 11,000, with over 10,000 voting members across branches.
The Academy described the group as artists and professionals whose work has significantly shaped global cinema, with selections reviewed at branch level before final approval by the Board of Governors.
This year’s list includes names already familiar to mainstream audiences, including Jenna Ortega, Jacob Elordi, Simu Liu, Jon Bernthal, and Julia Garner, alongside filmmakers such as the Safdie brothers and Zach Cregger.
Filipinos in the room where votes are cast
Belarmino joins a growing group of Filipino creatives already inside the Academy, including Dolly de Leon, Baby Ruth Villarama, Brillante Mendoza, and Lav Diaz.
Each represents a different entry point into global cinema, but together they reflect a broader shift. Filipino filmmaking is no longer appearing only on festival screens. It is now present in the voting rooms that decide awards.
Why this matters in short film cinema
The Short Films branch is often overlooked in public conversations about the Oscars, but within the industry it is one of the most internationally diverse and influential parts of the Academy.
It is also where many filmmakers begin before moving into feature work.
For Belarmino, the invitation is not just recognition. It is access to decision-making space within the same ecosystem where his films have already been circulating for years.
It also completes a loop that began long before this announcement.
From Cinemalaya to Berlin, from Paris residencies to Cannes and Toronto screenings, his work has moved steadily through the global festival system without shortcuts or sudden pivots.