PH victories in LA and Torino

“The Landscape Within”

Filipino producer Darlene Catly Malimas reports that Andrea Capranico’s documentary, “The Landscape Within,” won the Jury Award for Best Picture at the recent Experimental Forum Los Angeles.

The Manila-based Italian filmmaker’s docu tells the story of Eric Nui Cabales, a Filipino conceptual artist, body painter, costume designer and photographer, who “struggles to find new directions after the death of his father.”

The Experimental Forum is an international film and video art festival that aims to provide a “supportive platform for exciting and challenging work outside the scope of mainstream film festivals and art galleries.”

The docu likewise won honorable mention at the Art Visuals and Poetry Film Festival in Vienna, Austria, this month. Previously, the film topped various fests and events in the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Greece, Indonesia and Singapore.

Meanwhile, Carlo Francisco Manatad’s latest project, “Whether the Weather is Fine” (previously known as “A Wrong Season”), was awarded the top Jury Prize at the TorinoFilmLab. The honor comes with 50,000 euros that will be earmarked to complete the coming film.

Connected with the Torino Film Festival, the Italy-based, year-round laboratory “primarily supports filmmakers working on their first and second fiction feature films.”

Cowritten by Giancarlo Abrahan and produced by Armi Rae Cacanindin and Quantum Films, Manatad’s film is set in Tacloban City, a day after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” struck the Philippines. —BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.

“The Landscape Within”