Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz’s “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” and “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” landed on the year-end lists drafted by three prestigious publications: The Guardian, Film Comment and IndieWire.
“Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian’s chief film critic, chose the Top 10 films, as well as Top 10 directors, actors, scriptwriters, on a year-end honor roll that the United Kingdom-based publication calls Braddies.
“Norte” is ninth in the best film lineup that has, as front-runners, Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood,” Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin” and Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave.”
Diaz is also third on the best director list, after McQueen and Linklater.
Angeli Bayani, “Norte” lead actor, likewise got a Braddie for best actress (sixth on the list), alongside Juliette Binoche (“Camille Claudel”), Scarlett Johansson (“Under the Skin”), Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”) and Hilary Swank (“The Homesman”).
Two lists
Film Comment conducted a poll among 100 North American critics to rank the 20 best released and unreleased films of the year and Diaz made it to both lists.
“Norte” ranked 15 on the list of released films–which had Tsai Ming-liang’s “Stray Dogs” at No. 17 and Bong Joon-ho’s “Snowpiercer” at No. 20. “Boyhood” topped Film Comment’s list of released films.
On Film Comment’s roster of unreleased films, Diaz’s “Mula” was No. 5, with Alice Rohrwacher’s “The Wonders” and Sang Soo-hong’s “Hill of Freedom” at No. 1 and 2, respectively.
IndieWire’s critic Eric Kohn drafted his own list of the best undistributed films of 2014, and ranked No. 1 is Diaz’s “Mula.”
“Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon”
Said Kohn of the five-and-a-half hour epic: “It earns every minute… a world comes to life, enhancing the tragedy when it falls apart.”
“Norte” is the country’s entry in the best foreign language film category of the Academy Awards. It is nominated for best international film in the Independent Spirit Awards, both set in February in the United States.
“Mula” won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival last August.