Benildean Filmmakers Sweep Top Awards at UP Cine Adarna's POV XIX Film Festival

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Kokuryo director Diokko Dionisio flanked by POV judges and UP Cinema members


De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde has again emerged victorious in student filmmaking, with their student filmmakers taking home multiple awards at the University of the Philippines Cine Adarna. This time, they conquered the 19th Piling Obrang Vidyo (POV), an interschool film competition established in 2004 by the UP Film Institute-based student organization UP Cinema.

One of the standout films of the event was "Kokuryo: The Untold Story of Bb. Undas 2019," by Diokko Manuel Dionisio, a Benildean filmmaker. The short film follows two best friends searching for someone they believe stole half of their winnings from a gay beauty pageant. It went on to win the Best Film, Best Narrative, Best Screenplay, and Best Production Design awards.

Last year, CM Bautista's "Pig's Game," also from DLS-CSB, won the POV Jury Prize, Best Screenplay for Bautista and co-writer Tristan Aguilar, and Best Performance for James Ramada. The film centers around a theater actor caught up in an audition for government propaganda.

Other Benildean filmmakers also shone at the event. Vahn Pascual's "Alingasngas ng mga Kuliglig" secured the Best Direction prize, Best Music/Original Score for Karl Arthur Javier and BenildeFilm alumna Nik Rosacay, and the Cinemasters' Choice award. In the silent film, a boy forced by his father to become the next folk healer of their town secretly falls in love with a tikbalang, a Philippine mythological creature with the head and hooves of a horse.

Josh Mutia's "Balde at Brotsa," which recounts the personal struggles of three artists with different forms of societal oppression, clinched the Best Documentary award. Augustine's "The Secret Band of Thebes" earned a Special Citation for Animation. Meanwhile, the experimental film "People Fade as Colors Do" by Josef Edward Tafalla, and two other documentaries, "Elehiya para sa mga Memorya" by Ryan Miguel Capili and "Ang Paghahanap kay Dalagang Bukid" by Leia Amidala Santos, also made it to the list of only 12 POV finalists.

The competition was tough, but the Benildean filmmakers were up to the challenge. Dionisio and Jean Evangelista's "Malikmata" will compete with eight other student filmmakers in the interschool division of Sinepiyu XV, the annual film festival of Far Eastern University (FEU). The festival runs from May 2 to 6, and the finalists will be shown on-site at FEU Manila and Cinematheque Centre Manila and online at JuanFlix: The FDCP Channel.

The success of these Benildean student filmmakers is a testament to the quality of education and training provided by De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde's School of Design and Arts. It is also a testament to these young filmmakers' creativity, passion, and hard work. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists; we can't wait to see what they will come up with next.

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