Film Title: Anino
Type: Short Film
Writer: Stephanie Adams-Santos and MG Evangelista
Director: MG Evangelista
Executive Producers: Simone Ling, Damian Bao
Producer: Discordia Cine
Casting Director: Damian Bao
Shoot Location: Los Angeles, CA
Callback Date with Director: June 24 th for MARTA (1 day – in LA) / TBD for other roles
Rehearsal/Wardrobe Fitting Date: July 22nd in LA
Shoot Dates: July 23-29 (each role shoots 1-5 days)
Contract: SAG-AFTRA / AFI Short-Form Film Participant Agreement
Talent Rate: $241/day for principal roles
Logline: A teen girl turns the tables on local bullies when she comes into a dark inheritance initiating her into an ancient power kept alive by her grandmothers.
About the Director: Writer-director MG Evangelista was born in Manila and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Evangelista received a 2023 United States Artists Fellowship in Film, joining a distinguished list of filmmakers whose past recipients include Barry Jenkins, Dee Rees, Lee Isaac Chung, and Kelly Reichardt. Currently, an AFI DWW+ Directing Participant for the 2024-2025 year.
Playing with cinematic language and subverting narrative tropes, Evangelista captures people and places with poetry and pop. Featured on Hulu, at the Brooklyn Museum, and in i-D Magazine, their body of work includes VR dramedy Water Melts, supported by Tribeca and Google, La Gloria, a Project Involve produced short, and an HBO Ibero-American Award Finalist and the documentary They Call Me Suki, about legendary AAPI activist Suki Terada Ports.
Evangelista’s debut feature film, Burning Well, currently in development, received the 2020 Tribeca All Access Grant, a 2021 WIF x Sundance Finance Intensive Fellowship, an ARRAY + Google production grant, and the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Grant. The feature is based on the short film Fran this Summer, an LGBTQ love story that won the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest and screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2022, the film participated in the Torino Feature Film Lab and the Film Fatales: Trans Stories Fellowship.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN FOR PRINCIPAL (SPEAKING) ROLES:
MARTA (14, Guatemalan-Filipino), often mistaken for a boy. She’s a late bloomer, navigating the awkwardness of adolescence. Though she appears reserved and composed, she’s grappling with a complex tangle of identity, grief, and self-discovery, holding more inside than she lets on. Open to Guatemalan-Filipino, Latine-Filipino, Filipino, or Latine Female-Identified or Non-Binary Talent, Age 14-21
CLEO (14, Black) is charming and lovable, with an enchanting face and a voice that melts the hearts of everyone around her. She’s the rare cool girl who’s kind-hearted, honest, and fair. Cleo always gives people the benefit of the doubt, sometimes even when they don’t deserve it. Open to Black Female-Identified or Non-Binary Talent, Age 14-21
MAX (14, White) is popular at school through a mixture of extroverted charm and intimidation. There’s something a little off and complicated about him. He wrestles with daunting feelings and emotions, channeling his inner turmoil into his interactions with others who trigger his insecurities. Open to White Male-Identified Talent, Age 14-21
JULIAN (14, Latine) is goofy and quiet, scrawny, and a bit of a pushover. He’s the first one to laugh at a joke and would jump off a bridge if Max or any of his friends dared him to. Soft-spoken, Julian has a gentle nature and a deep affection for his pet lizard, Leopold. Open to Latine Male-Identified Talent, Age 14-21
IMELDA (60s, Filipino) is a resilient woman, hardened by a lifetime of sorrow. As a medicine woman (albularyo), she blends Catholic and pagan traditions with unwavering devotion. She co-runs a care home with her granddaughter’s other grandmother, Serapia. Imelda’s words are as sharp as the knives in her kitchen. Beneath her slight and modest appearance lies a dark secret: she is the keeper of the monster, Anino. Open to Filipino Female-Identified or Non-Binary Talent, Age 50-75
SERAPIA (60s, Guatemalan), a warm and tender soul. She is a gentle-butch, though that’s not really talked about in this household. She is deeply intuitive and spiritual and has a lot of mana that gives her the strength and patience to put up with Imelda and Marta’s tempers. Open to Latine Female-Identified or Non-Binary Talent, Age 50-75
PLEASE NOTE:
- All roles are open to union and non union talents.
- Casting is open to submission from talents based anywhere in the world as long as talent can work as LA local. If you are not based in LA, please only apply if you can provide your own travel to/from LA and hotel/lodging in LA if cast. Please also indicate that you can work LA Local in the “Are you available to rehearse and shoot in Los Angeles, CA?” question section when submitting to the form.