Carl Joseph E. Papa is a Filipino filmmaker and animator. His films employ rotoscoping and unique animation techniques to explore the country's social and personal conflicts.
His animated films have been screened at film festivals, and pioneered top honors during his lifetime including black tragicomedy Manang Biring (2015) and musical comedy-drama Paglisan (2018), both of which won him Best Film twice at Cinema One Originals Film Festival, and psychological drama science-fiction Iti Mapukpukaw (2023), won the Best Film at the 19th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. His recent film, 58th, was premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Originally intended as a software engineer when he was an alumnus of University of the Philippines and pursue his career as a Java consultant at Orange and Bronze Software Labs, Papa took filmmaking instead to develop cutout animated short films Ang Prinsesa, ang Prinsipe at si Marlborita (2012) and iNay (2013).
He made his directorial debut live action film, the semi-autobiographical experimental drama The Unforgetting (2014), about a young woman's struggle to preserve happy memories and forgetting painful ones when her mother left. The film was screened at QCinema International Film Festival.
He gained local recognition for his adult animated films: Manang Biring, which won him the Best Film at the 2015 Cinema One Originals, the first animated film to do so, and Paglisan, which won him another Best Film at the 2018 Cinema One Originals. Iti Mapukpukaw garnered several awards, including Best Film at the 19th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and 47th Gawad Urian Awards, the first animated film to do so, and immense media attention for his submission as the Philippine entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 96th Academy Awards, the first animated film to be submitted by the Philippines.
In his recent film, 58th, describes as a documentary about the Maguindanao massacre that took place in 2009. The film portrays Glaiza de Castro as Ma. Reynafe Momay-Castillo, a daughter of the disappeared photojournalist Reynaldo "Bebot" Momay, alongside Ricky Davao, Mikoy Morales, Biboy Ramirez, Marco Masa, and Zyren Dela Cruz are announced to be part of the cast line-up; it was Davao's last acting film prior to his death in May 2, 2025.
In addition of directorial films, he is writing several live-action comedy films including Asuang (2018), Mang Jose (2021), and Boys at the Back (2024).
He is currently working on his animated film, Sentinel, set in a high school consumed by dark secrets.
With the exception of The Unforgetting and Homecoming, Papa's directorial films are entirely animated with different types of animation: cutout, child art, and rotoscoping. Each films have recorded in live-action or voice recording with storyboard process during pre-production before the animation process in post-production. Additionally, most directorial films have notable, well-known cast members including Cherry Pie Picache, Ian Veneracion, Eula Valdez, Khalil Ramos, Carlo Aquino, and Dolly de Leon.
Papa's films explore social and personal conflicts that reflected the country's daily lives, most often including abandonment (The Unforgetting), cancer and death (Manang Biring), dementia and depression (Paglisan), incest and child sexual abuse (Iti Mapukpukaw), political corruption (58th), rape (The Next 24 Hours), and teenage pregnancy (iNay).