A jury of film professionals, vetted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), has chosen Rafael Manuel’s “Filipiñana” as the country’s official submission to the 99th Academy Awards, the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) confirmed in a Sunday statement.
The panel weighed contenders across three benchmarks: their artistic value, how strongly they reflected Filipino culture, and whether they could sustain a campaign on the global stage.
“In selecting ‘Filipiñana,’ the Committee considered the integrity of the film, the producers’ commitment and capacity to fulfill the requirements of the Oscars campaign, and the film’s ability to embody the pride of Philippine cinema,” FAP said.
Beyond its craft, the selectors pointed to the picture’s thematic weight. “The Committee also recognized the film’s strong visual style, but more importantly its incisive examination of class, power, labor, and social realities, as well as its growing international profile,” the body added.
At its center is Isabel, who works retrieving tees at a Philippine country club and finds herself pulled toward the club’s president, Dr. Palanca. As the story unfolds, she uncovers the brutality that runs beneath the club and a history that ties the two of them together.
The short arrives at the Oscars race already decorated. This past February it took the special jury award at Sundance. Years earlier, its 2020 bow in the shorts lineup at the Berlinale earned it the Silver Bear Short Film Jury Prize.
That festival haul kept building afterward. The film collected the Grand Prix at Encounters, top short honors at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal, the Best British Short Film prize at the British Independent Film Awards, Best Student Short Film at the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival, and — at Short Shorts Film Festival Asia — both the Best Film award in the Asia International Competition and the George Lucas Grand Prix for Best of Show.
Domestic audiences got their turn more recently, when “Filipiñana” wrapped up this year’s Cinemalaya Film Festival as its closing feature ahead of a theatrical run.
