A Prince Claus for Lav

“MULA sa Kung Ano ang Noon”

“Nahihiya ako,” Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz said of his latest award. He has found himself at the center of attention again, barely a month after winning the top prize in an A-list international film festival.

Diaz is one of 11 recipients of the Netherlands-based Prince Claus Awards this year, only the second Filipino since it was started in 1997 (the first is musicologist Elena Rivera Mirano, in 2001).

The awards are presented to individuals and organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean for outstanding achievements in culture and development.

The Prince Claus Fund is described in its website as “a worldwide platform for cultural exchange [that] collaborates with artists, intellectuals and cultural organizations… in spaces where resources and opportunities for cultural expression, creative production and research are limited and cultural heritage is threatened.”

The other honorees this year: principal awardee Abel Rodriguez, artist, plant expert and community elder of the Nonuya people of the Amazon basin (Colombia); filmmaker Ignacio Agüero (Chile), writer and curator Rosina Cazali (Guatemala), visual artist FX Harsono (Indonesia), Invisible Borders Trans-American Photography Organization (Nigeria), visual artist Gülsün Karamustafa (Turkey), artist and curator Tran Luong (Vietnam), Museu Itinerante de Arte por la Memoria (Peru), dancer/choreographer Lia Rodrigues (Brazil), and Sparrow, Sound & Pictures Archives for Research on Women (India).

Diaz’s award comes with a cash prize of 25,000 euros (P1,417,912).

The honor was unexpected, he said. Only last month, he won the Golden Leopard (Best Picture) award at the Locarno (Switzerland) International Film Festival with his latest work, “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon.”

He told the Inquirer, “The selection process was done in secret. [The citation says] the nominating committee carefully studied and analyzed my films.”

The citation also describes Diaz as a “visionary [who]  films in ‘real time’ to immerse the viewer in deep reflection on Filipino history and experience.”

The awards committee, the website says, was composed of “independent experts from different countries, representing a broad range of disciplines.”

Diaz dedicated his Prince Claus to “the country, my Inang [and] my family.”

Organizers have invited him to the awards ceremony, set Dec. 10 at the Royal Palace Amsterdam, in the presence of the royal family.