SAN FRANCISCO - It is a great day for Filipino American filmmakers today. The Hollywood Reporter just reported that 366 feature films - that is, 40 minutes or longer - have been deemed eligible for the best picture Oscar at the 93rd Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced Thursday. Three of the films are by Filipino American filmmakers.
The eligible FilAm films are:
- "Yellow Rose", a feature film directorial debut for Diane Paragas who co-wrote the screenplay with Annie Howell and Celena Cipriaso. It just won in January the Houston Film Critics Society’s Best Texas Film of 2020 Award, to add to the multiple Grand Jury and Audiences festival awards it has won. The film centers around a Filipina American teenager who dreams of becoming a country music star while facing the threat of deportation. The film stars Eva Noblezada in her first feature film lead role. She was included in Backstage.com's 51 Leading Film Actors Who Deserve to Win at the 2021 SAG Awards list. Joining her in the film are Tony Winner Lea Salonga, Princess Punzalan, Dale Watson, Liam Booth among others. "Yellow Rose" is a 2017 ABS-CBN Cinematografo Original seed grant winner and became the first Filipino American film to be distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
- "Lingua Franca", whose FilAm lead actress, director, writer, editor and producer Isabel Sandoval was recently signed by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and also just won Best Actress at the 2021 International Cinephile Society (ICS) Awards, adding to the litany of Best Picture and Best Actress awards the film has nabbed. FilAm Tony and Grammy winner Jhett Tolentino - who is a producer for the film - has advocated for Sandoval as a unique, multi-talented creative. "Lingua Franca" is a story of an undocumented Filipina trans caregiver in Brooklyn who is trying to pursue marriage to get a green card. It also stars Eamon Farren, Lev Gorn, Mark Nelson, and Lynn Cohen among others.
- "A Thousand Cuts", directed, written, co-edited and produced by award-winning filmmaker Ramona Diaz of "Imelda" and "Motherland" fame, is a PBS/Frontline release that has drew huge attention for being a real-life epic ongoing fight for truth in media. The film examines social media disinformation campaigns and what has been chronicled in international media as a current brutal crackdown on the Philippine press by the current government. The principal focus is prominent journalist Maria Ressa of Rappler, TIME Magazine's Person of the Year, as one of the top targets of the government that is widely seen as stifling press freedom and democracy.
Complete report from The Hollywood Reporter below:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-366-films-eligible-for-best-picture-most-in-50-years