A selection of five Filipino films will be screened in this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF). Crisanto Aquino’s Write About Love (2019) and Rae Red’s Babae at Baril will screen in the Osaka Asian Film Festival’s official competition section. Meanwhile, Metamorphosis (dir. Jose Enrique Tiglao, 2019) and Sunshine Family (dir. Tai-sik Kim, 2019) join Jade Castro’s official 2019 PPP entry LSS (Last Song Syndrome) in the festival’s “Special Program: New Action! Southeast Asia.”
Write About Love and Babae at Baril, among the 15 films competing in the OAFF’s main competition, will be making their international premieres in Osaka. In the festival’s main competition, a group of international jurors—including Filipino filmmaker Jade Castro—will select the winners of the Grand Prix and Most Promising Talent Award.
Babae at Baril participated in the ‘First Cut Story Development Lab’ in FDCP’s 2019 ‘First Cut Lab.’ This lab, which held its first edition in the Philippines supported 16 projects under various workshops. Through the four-day story development lab, Red’s film underwent script treatment from a variety of international industry veterans. The film has seen success since its premiere and director Rae Red bagged the ‘Best Director Award’ from the QCinema International Film Festival in 2019. Write About Love has been successful as well having won various awards from the Metro Manila Film Festival including the Special Jury Prize for the feature films category.
The festival’s “Special Program: New Action! Southeast Asia” highlights new movements in Southeast Asian cinema and features a wide variety of films from the region. Under this program, LSS and Metamorphosis will make their international premieres and Sunshine Family will make its Japan Premiere.
FDCP Chairperson and CEO Liza Diño expressed joy for the films selected. “The selections for this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival are particularly important because two of the projects—Babae at Baril and LSS—were part of previous FDCP programs. Their international premieres in Osaka points to their continued progress and promoting Philippine movies on the international stage.”
The OAFF runs this year from March 6 to 15. This is the 15th edition of OAFF as it continues to “facilitate human resources development and exchange, invigorate the Osaka economy, and promote Osaka as a gateway for Asian films.”
The Osaka Asian Film Festival has consistently screened several Filipino films in previous iterations. Last year, the festival had a selection of five Filipino movies that included: (The Girl in the Orange Dress, Tanabata’s Wife, Gusto Kita with All My Hypothalamus, Billie & Emma, and The Eternity Between Seconds).
