The Woman in the Septic Tank

Jocelyn, Rainier, and Bingbong are three film school graduates who are dead-set on making an Oscar-worthy film. They set out to do a quick pre-production as a courtesy call to their lead actress played by Eugene Domingo, and a thorough inspection of their film's major location, the Payatas dumpsite. They believe they have a winning script, and the energy and drive to make their dreams come true, no matter what the cost. There, they use Eugene Domingo's acting skills to her limit, including forcing her to swim in a sewer, despite her pleas that she can do anything, except swim in a sewer.

The film broke box office records for the Cinemelaya Independent Film Festival. It is the first full-length film to have its audience tickets sell to its maximum capacity within ten days of showing at the festival. The film was a commercial as well as critical success.[7][8] The film earned a total of P20 million on its first five days.[9] The total gross of the film amounted to P38.4 million, making it the highest grossing independent film in the history of Philippine cinema until it was surpassed in 2015 by That Thing Called Tadhana.[1]

Richard Kuipers of Variety describes The Woman in the Septic Tank as "a lively laffer." He also praises the performance of lead actors Cipriano and de Guzman, calling it "spot-on as the guys with one eye on the slums and the other on travel and trophies."[10] Meanwhile, Maggie Lee of The Hollywood Reporter says the film is "a lambast of the pretensions of independent cinema in his country and his fellow filmmakers' inflated egos." However, she is concerned about its "specialized topic and low-budget look" that may be off-putting for some audience, which may minimize its commercial prospect internationally. She also compares how the film replays specific sequences, each with narrative or stylistic revisions, to "a Groundhog Day of pilot filmmaking."[11]

The film is an official entry for the 2011 Vancouver International Film Festival, Pusan International Film Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the Far East Film Festival.[1] The film was chosen by the Film Academy of the Philippines to represent the Philippines in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards,[12][13] but it did not make the final shortlist.[14]

(*The film was under the New Breed Full Length Feature Category)