Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana has been selected as the Philippines’ official entry for the Best International Feature Film category of the 99th Academy Awards.
The selection was made by a Committee, composed of Filipino film industry experts approved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and convened by the Film Academy of the Philippines.. The Committee reviewed eight films submitted for consideration, evaluating them based on artistic merit, cultural relevance, and international campaign potential.
In selecting Filipiñana, the Committee considered the integrity of the film, the producers’ commitment and capacity to fulfill the requirements of the Oscars campaign, and the film’s ability to embody the pride of Philippine cinema. The Committee also recognized the film’s strong visual style but more importantly its incisive examination of class, power, labor, and social realities, as well as its growing international profile.
Director-General Paolo Villaluna congratulated the team behind Filipiñana on the Committee’s selection.
“The film offers a visually distinct and controversial portrait of the Filipino experience: through the eyes of a young Filipina at an elite country club, the film exposes the structural violence, class disparity, and post-colonial inequities that persist even now beneath a meticulously manicured surface of privilege. Its growing international critical recognition affirms both its artistic merit and its capacity to carry a Filipino story rooted in universal questions of power, identity, and survival to a global audience. The Film Academy will work closely with the Filipiñana team throughout the Oscars campaign, providing the support they need and make the most of this opportunity for Philippine cinema,” Villaluna said.
Lead producer and Epicmedia Productions Inc. COO Bianca Balbuena expressed gratitude for the opportunity to represent the Philippines and reaffirmed the team’s commitment to the Oscars campaign.
“We’ve been working hard since Sundance and Berlinale. We have the support of Oscar winners- Film4 (Zone of Interest, Poor Things) and US distributor Kino Lorber (Mr Nobody Against Putin). In New York, it is Film Forum’s biggest opening weekend performer of the decade and has risen to 141% on its second week at the US box office. Our UK distributor BFI will release the film in UK theaters in November. I hope all this awareness and acclaim can take us far. It is a steep climb to the shortlist but we are a whole village and we’ll be toiling tirelessly,” Balbuena said.
Set within the self-contained world of an elite country club outside Manila, Filipiñana follows 17-year-old Isabel, a young woman from rural Ilocos who works as a “tee girl,” lining up golf balls for the club’s wealthy members.
Isabel becomes fascinated by Dr. Palanca, the club’s president, but as she begins to uncover the violence beneath the club’s pristine surface, she discovers that her seemingly innocent fascination is connected to a darker shared history.
The film uses the enclosed world of the country club to examine the tensions between privilege and labor, wealth and inequality, and the structures that allow social hierarchies to endure.
Manuel said these concerns also extended to the way Filipiñana was made, with the production team deliberately seeking a healthier working environment for the cast and crew, particularly below-the-line workers who often bear the pressure of rushed and compressed shooting schedules.
“By representing the Philippines in the Oscars, hopefully Filipiñana also represents how healthier production processes are a viable economic and artistic route for making a film that can compete at the highest levels,” Manuel said.
The film stars Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, and Nour Houshmand.
Agoto said the selection carries both honour and responsibility for the cast and the film, adding that “we will work hard to represent the country well. This film portrays a different side of the Philippines, a different kind of what our cinema is and what it can be.”
Filipiñana made its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision.
The film subsequently had its European premiere in the Perspectives section of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival. It has also screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it received the New Directors Award, and at the Independent Film Festival of Boston, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature. It was also awarded the Luna de València for Best Feature Film at Cinema Jove International Film Festival.
Its international distribution has continued to expand. Kino Lorber acquired North American distribution rights following its Sundance recognition, while BFI Distribution acquired the film for theatrical release in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber reaffirmed the distributor’s commitment to the film’s campaign, adding that “we have been supporting the film via publicity, marketing, and advertising throughout its theatrical release and already have plans in place to transition that support into a successful Oscars campaign. With the quality and appeal of Filipiñana, I strongly believe it can go the distance.”
With its selection as the Philippine entry, Filipiñana now begins its campaign for consideration in the Best International Feature Film category of the 99th Academy Awards.
The 99th Academy Awards will be held on March 14, 2027, in Los Angeles.
Praise for Filipiñana:
“With stunning visual command and sensitivity to the setting, the filmmaker thoughtfully evokes a world where characters languish. Through its static form, the filmmaker highlights the insidious tension between luxury and labor…” – Sundance Film Festival Jury
“Its scenes are finely composed and precisely staged yet fluidly energetic. They are exemplary in their sensory beauty, in the delicately understated (and thus all the more powerful emotions) that they embody, in the world that they conjure, in the analytical insight that they unfold. With ‘Filipiñana,’ Manuel opens new vistas in the future of the cinema.” – Richard Brody/New Yorker
“A poised, potent study of power and corruption. … Filipiñana is a film of great formal poise that hides a discourse about power, patriarchy, corruption and violence beneath a placid surface of sprinklers, golf carts and obsessively tended greens. A rich, densely cinematic film.” – Lee Marshall/ Screen International
About the Film Academy of the Philippines
Established in 1981, the Film Academy of the Philippines serves as the umbrella organization for film professionals in the Philippines, tasked with promoting the welfare, training, and representation of film industry professionals.
Recognizing cinema’s cultural significance and economic contribution, and seeing a need to modernize the role of the Film Academy, President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos signed Executive Order No.70 s. 2024 “promoting the development of the Philippine film industry, strengthening the Film Academy of the Philippines,” turning it into a government agency and underlining the national government’s commitment to champion cinema and the creative industries.
The revamped Film Academy focuses on key initiatives: supporting industry professionalization, skills development, labor and welfare benefits, film awards and recognition, and strategic support for Oscars and international recognition. By developing and protecting its workforce, the Film Academy intends to improve Philippine industry practices and skills, with the aim of making it the leading audiovisual soft power in Southeast Asia.
