Martika Escobar emerges as the first Filipina feature film director to win at Sundance
Philippine cinema is off to a flying start this year as Martika Escobar's Leonor Will Never Die (Ang Pagbabalik ng Kwago) bags an award at the Sundance Film Festival.
The Filipina-directed film won the Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit, which competed against nine films across the globe. This marks an HERstoric first win of a Filipina film director after a 16-year cinematic drought in the World Cinema Dramatic section of the prestigious film festival.
"Films can speak and films can be heard, and today I’m glad that our film is felt by the jury. Thank you so much Sundance; our spirits are smiling," said Escobar in her acceptance speech.
“The film was a product of labor of love," she added.
? 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
Everything still seems so surreal for Escobar. The 29-year-old filmmaker from Manila is overjoyed by the news and considers herself "very lucky."
"It feels like I'm in a dream and I'm sure that's how it will feel for the rest of my life," she told the Golden Globes.
"It is rare for a filmmaker to be given absolute creative freedom and it is also rare to have a young Filipina filmmaker enter a big festival such as Sundance, and even rarer for an unconventional film such as ours to be recognized."
But this is just the beginning for the University of the Philippines Diliman graduate, as she hopes to make more inspiring films in the future.
"I still can't process all of this. But one thing is clear and it's that if I'll be making more films and working on other films, all I dream of is to spread more love through them," she said.
Leonor Will Never Die is a drama-comedy about Leonor Reyes played by Sheila Francisco, a grandmother who was once a significant player in the Philippine film business after producing a streak of popular action films.
The film heard her struggle with unpaid energy bills and the problems of facing violent street violence, which she misses from her previous fascinating life as a writer-director in the film.
Meanwhile, Don Josephus Eblahan’s The Headhunter’s Daughter also bagged Short Film Grand Jury Prize in the same Film Festival which follows the story of Lynn played by Ammin Acha-ur, an aspiring country artist who goes to the city to audition for a televised singing competition.
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival founded by the Sundance Institute – the largest independent film festival in the United States, and is considered one of most prestigious ones worldwide.