Lav Diaz wins in Ireland

Lav Diaz

Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz won best director at the Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards, held at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival, in Ireland recently. Diaz won for his work in “Ang Babaeng Humayo,” which bagged the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival last year.

Almost a hundred Irish and world premieres were held at the Dublin fest this year. DFCC president Tara Brady recalled that choosing the winners was a “grueling pleasure.”

Best picture was awarded to another critically lauded film, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “Aquarius,” starring Sonia Braga. Best actress went to Florence Pugh for ‘Lady Macbeth,’” and best actor to Sherwan Haji for “The Other Side of Hope.”

Diaz, who is currently in Harvard for the Radcliffe Fellowship, told the Inquirer: “It’s cool. Ibinabalita lang natin sa bayan, pangbawas kahit katiting man lang sa salimuot na dinaranas natin. (We are reporting it to the country, to diminish, no matter how slight, the complex crisis we’re now experiencing.)”—BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.