DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Two films from Mindanao won awards in the recently concluded 20th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.
Kantil (Trench), a movie shot in Davao City that explored folklore in the coastal village of Tibungco, won for actress Sue Prado the best supporting award.
Pamalandong sa Danow (Reflection in the Marsh), won Special Jury Prize in the short film category “For its compelling evocation of the glories of nature as seen through the eyes of two Lumad youngsters and their struggle to protect and preserve the Agusan Marsh of Mindanao.”
Prado, a Manila-based actress, portrayed a purok leader who has to protect her village from eviction and at the same time ponder a mysterious shell fished out from the sea that brings a supernatural element that affects the village.
Prado worked with a mix of veteran and new independent film actors and actresses based in Davao City and Cagayan de Oro
This is Prado’s second acting award, after winning Best Supporting Actress from Gawad Urian for her role in Manila Skies in 2010. She is also cast in the historical film Gomburza which is nominated for best ensemble acting by the Society of Filipino Film Reviewers.
Kantil is the debut full-length film of director Joshua Caesar ‘Wowa’ Medroso, which is an ode to his hometown Tibungco which inspires much of the themes of the film centering around poverty, demolition, politics, and local folklore.
His previous short film, Tong Adlaw nga Nag-Snow sa Pinas (The Day it Snowed in the Philippines), which was nominated for Best Short Film in the 2023 Cinemalaya, also depicted his childhood memories of living in the coastal slums of Tibungco.
A mass communication graduate, Medroso has also won various film awards for his other works.
Pamalandong sa Danao is directed by Breech Asher Harani, born in Davao de Oro and a mass communication graduate from Holy Cross of Davao College in 2012.
His IMDb profile credits him as “the first Filipino to win the JCS International Young Creatives Award by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2019”.
The 20th Cinemalaya film festival had just concluded its run in Metro Manila theatres from August 2 to 11. Kantil and nine other full-length films were shown during the festival.
Winning Best Film is the documentary Tumandok (The Inhabitants) which depicts the plight of the Ati in Panay defending their ancestral land.
Cinemalaya has yet to announce the screening of this year’s festival in Davao and other regions.
Producers of the film Kantil said they are still working out for its screening in Davao cinema soon. (davaotoday.com)
Cinemalaya, Mindanao, philippines
