SBU Film Student Earns National Recognition for Short Film ‘Baby Fat’

When Margarita Mina arrived in New York from the Philippines to begin her MFA in Filmat Stony Brook University's Manhattan Center for Creative Writing and Film, she felt isolated and overwhelmed. Alone in a new country and a different culture, she often felt "small." That sense of displacement is reflected in her first-year short film, Baby Fat, a very personal work that has earned national and international recognition.

Mina, a third-year MFA film student on the directing track, was recently named one of 17 recipients of the National Board of Review Student Grant for 2025. Her short film Baby Fatwas also selected by Rolling Stone Philippines as one of its "21 Best Filipino Films of 2025" alongside some of the most notable Filipino works released this year.

"I was pleasantly surprised that being a Filipino, and my very Filipino film, could touch people of different ethnicities who also feel the same way," Mina said.

Directed during her first year in the program, Baby Fatfollows a stocky Filipino-American tween who accidentally spills ketchup on a family heirloom dress. That accidental spill turns into an exploration of girlhood, body image and cultural identity. As the tween accompanies her mother to a laundromat to clean the dress, her feelings of alienation intensify, reflecting Mina's own early experiences adjusting to life in the United States when she arrived to attend Stony Brook.

"It's a very 'me' film," Mina said. "I moved to America from the Philippines in 2023 for grad school at Stony Brook, and I had come here without family, so I was alone. I always wanted to go to New York my whole life, but I felt so alone."

That emotional connection shaped the film's visual and narrative language. Mina remembers arriving in New York and feeling the urge to disappear. "I remember I was in a laundromat when I first arrived here, and I thought 'Oh my god, I just want to go in the dryer and shrink and hide' because of how I feel in this country," she said. "I felt very proud of myself because I cried a lot making Baby Fat."

Growing up in Quezon City, Philippines, she spent countless hours watching movies with her father, an on-call lawyer who filled his downtime watching films on VHS tapes. "Despite the silence, it was how he and I developed a bond," she said. Those early childhood experiences led her to pursue a BA in Film under Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

After graduating, Mina took a break from filmmaking, and it wasn't until she arrived at Stony Brook that her passion returned. She was drawn to the program's emphasis on independence and artistic freedom.

"The truly independent tagline of the program enticed me," Mina said. "I got the impression that it was a program that would allow me to be radical and not follow a specific film school template."

Classes like 'Writing the Short' and 'Production I' helped her learn how to create a narrative film. "Before coming to SBU, I never really knew how to properly write and make a narrative film," she said. "From pitching that image in my classes, I was able to form the building blocks that propelled my story from a formal, linear beginning to end."

Also important was the environment created by faculty and classmates. Mina credits the program's mentorship model with giving her the confidence to be vulnerable in her work. "It was a safe space where I didn't have to censor any of my vulnerability," she said.

She emphasized that professors encourage students to refine their authentic voices. "They always encourage us to tell stories that only we can tell," Mina said. "They were always aware and cautious of the nuances that every student brings to their writing."

The National Board of Review Student Grant, which supports emerging filmmakers and has helped launch films at festivals such as Sundance and Telluride, was an unexpected surprise. Stony Brook nominated Mina for the honor, making her the first student from the program to receive the award.

"I was surprised that they nominated me, since it was just for my first-year film," she said. "It gave me a morale boost that I may actually be doing this filmmaking thing 'right.'"

Mina remains optimistic about her future in filmmaking. "I keep getting shortlisted," she said. "But I know I will get in. I'm manifesting!"

She is now editing her second-year film and developing her thesis project, which she plans to shoot in the Philippines, and said her ambitions have grown. "I've become more fearless," she said. "I'm not as afraid of doing too much anymore."

Mina plans to move between New York and the Philippines, continuing to tell stories rooted in Filipino experiences while collaborating with the community she found at Stony Brook. "I'm happy I chose this program," she said. "They help me develop the things I see and want to say."

- Beth Squire