RP FILM WINS IN VENICE FEST

RP film wins in Venice fest
By Ricky Lo
Monday, September 8, 2008

Lav Diaz’s Melancholia won the Best Film Award in the Orizzonti Section of the 65th Venice

International Film Festival which ended Saturday.

This piece of good news was relayed to The STAR by Funfare’s Toronto-based “international

correspondent” Ferdinand Lapuz who is a member of the Philippine delegation to the

filmfest in his capacity as producer of Jay, the other Filipino film which competed in the

same section.

According to a report from Venice, the decision of the Orizzonti Jury (composed of

Chantal, president; Nicole Brenez, Barbara Cupisti, Jose Luis Guerin, and Veiko Ounpuu)

was unanimous.

The three runners-up are:
• Below Sea Level by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy/USA), Doc Prize;

• Un Lac by Philippe Grandrieux (France), Special Mention; and

• Wo Men (We) by Huang Wenhai (China/Switzerland), also Special Mention.

No Filipino film competed for the Golden Lion, the top prize in the Main Section which was

won by The Wrestler (USA), directed by Darren Aronofsky; and Russia’s Paper Soldier,

directed by Aleksey German Jr., placing second (Silver Lion).

Chosen as closing film of the filmfest, Melancholia, which runs for almost eight hours and

shot in various places in the Philippines, tries to explore the question of why there’s

“so much sadness and so much madness” in this world, in the end finding no answer at all.

It stars Angeli Bayani, Perry Dizon, Roeder Camanag, Raul Arellano, Dante Perez, Malaya

and Soliman Cruz.

It’s the second time for Diaz to have won an award at the VIFF. Last year, he won a

Special Mention award for his nine-hour film Kagadanan Sa Banwaan Ning Mga Engkanto (Death

in the Land of Enkantos) which depicts the death and desolation of the Bicol region after

a killer typhoon.

“The Venice International Film Festival shouldn’t be confused with the Venice Film

Festival (take note: No ‘international’), also in Italy, and another Venice Film Festival

in the US,” said lawyer-producer Joji Alonso who is well-versed about international film

festivals because some of her films, including Kubrador (directed by Jeffrey Jeturian),

have won awards abroad.

The Venice International Film Festival was initially known as D Mostra Internazionale d’

Arte Cinematografica di Venezia.

Meanwhile, the Baron Geisler-starrer Jay, directed by Francis Xavier Pasion, was initially

intended for the Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Debut Film but it qualified for the

Orizzonti, which is a bigger section.

Born in 1958 in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, an island in Mindanao, Diaz is recognized as

“the ideological father of the New Philippine Film Movement,” noted for making films that

run for hours, also including Batang West Side (2002), Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang

Pilipino (2005) and Heremias subtitled Ikalawang Alkat: Ang Alamat ng Prinsesang Bayawak

(2006).