Filipino films win big at Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival just concluded recently. In it, two Filipino films – Leonor Will Never Die and The Headhunter’s Daughter – took home prestigious prizes. Indeed, this marks a historic win for the Philippines.
Firstly, Leonor Will Never Die bagged the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit. Meanwhile, The Headhunter’s Daughter won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.
🏆 World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit goes to LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE, directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar (@martikaescobar). #sundance pic.twitter.com/ktgaiBBd7T
— SundanceFilmFestival (@sundancefest) January 28, 2022
🏆 Short Film Grand Jury Prize presented by XRM Media goes to THE HEADHUNTER’S DAUGHTER, directed by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan. #sundance pic.twitter.com/hSgSuJlCAj
— SundanceFilmFestival (@sundancefest) January 28, 2022
Escobar’s labor of love
‘Leonor’ director Martika Ramirez Escobar shared during her acceptance speech that the film was an eight-year “labor of love.”
Certainly, through this masterpiece, it showed.
The film follows Leonor Reyes (Shiela Francisco), a grandmother and a retired filmmaker. She goes on with a dramatic and comedic journey of living inside her unfinished screenplay.
Escobar shared her award with her producers and her fellow female filmmakers. Indeed, this speaks to all of the aspiring filmmakers out there. Above all, female directors who are often discredited.
“I hope we all get to make the films we want to make in this life because we can.”
Showcasing the indigenous identity through film
On the other hand, Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan’s The Headhunter’s Daughter follows the journey of Lynn (Ammin Acha-ur). She attempts to achieve her dream of becoming an artist.
Lynn is catapulted into the postcolonial world and witnesses it through the lens of an indigenous person from the Cordilleras.
Of course, Eblahan, proud of his Ifugao Igorot descent, shared that the film was an instrument to showcase Igorot culture and identities.
In addition, the film crew was comprised of only four people although bringing in a couple of people when needed.
Meanwhile, Eblahan told Sundance,
“We managed to make something intimate and very personal to us.”
The Sundance Film Festival Award Ceremony was held online, in a last-minute decision, due to the pandemic. Certainly, this last minute decision turned out for the best.
