In Runo!, the Aspin Is an Unlikely Heroine

Student animators Lysa Catolico and Jazmine Gin R. Pateña pay tribute to the resilience of the Filipino street dog in their Cinemalaya short.

In the Philippines, you might notice a particular breed of dog roaming the streets: the aspin, or asong Pinoy, a mixed-breed street dog that’s native to the county. Intelligent, loyal, and resilient, the aspin is often looked down upon. But in the animated short film Runo! the aspin is the unlikely heroine of the story.

An official entry to this year’s edition of Cinemalaya, Runo! follows the story of a hungry rescue aspin trying to find her owner, Aimee, in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Directed and written by student animators Lysa Catolico and Jazmine Gin R. Pateña, the film was originally a pitch submitted for their creative unit at iAcademy.

“I wanted to explore the idea na what if apocalypse pero iba yung protagonist,” Catolico says. After throwing ideas back and forth, they settled on an aspin, as the pair are immense dog lovers.

“One of the reasons we made Runo! was to show that it’s a love letter for the aspin,” Pateña says. “We also wanted to show them that we can learn a lot from a non-human heroine.”

Visually, the duo had one goal in mind: How can they make an animated film look like it was made in the Philippines? They landed on bright colors, textures, and maximalist aesthetics. “We didn’t want to make it look clean or very polished,” Catolico says. “We wanted it to be very human; you can tell it’s crafted with human error, if that makes sense, because there are rules that we have to follow with animation.”

As for the voices of Runo and Aimee, actress Nour Hooshmand lent her voice to the film. “It’s even sweeter that these two characters are voiced by the same amazing voice actor,” Pateña says. “She didn’t even need a lot of convincing,” Catolico adds. “Tinanong lang siya kung gusto niya mag-voice acting ng aso, tapos ‘g’ na daw siya kaagad.”

Another aspect of the film that they’re proud of is the sound design, which is composed by Nicholai Policarpio and Minion. “We definitely needed help with that, and it was an experience trying to translate what we wanted, because we don’t know a lot about music.”

For first-time filmmakers, Catolico and Pateña have reached a lot of milestones. First, premiering at last year’s QCinema International Film Festival and then screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival earlier this year. “To be honest, for me, I wasn’t born a filmmaker. I wasn’t born an artist, and I didn’t think this path could be accessible to me,” Pateña says. “Right now, this is very exciting, but I wouldn’t have been able to get that courage if I hadn’t been with my peers and mentors.”

“I see momentum right now. It’s like booming Filipino films and Filipino animation this year,” Catolico says. The Filipino animation industry does have much to celebrate this year. This September, DreamWorks’ first Filipino animated film, Forgotten Island, will hit the theaters, and Zsazsa Zaturnnah vs. the Amazonistas of Planet X received a standing ovation at its 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival premiere.

As the film begins its screenings at Cinemalaya this weekend, the two are taking it all in while working on their next creative project. As they do so, they are motivated by a piece of advice they received from their fellow student animators and peers: pasa lang nang pasa (just keep on passing).