'Filipiñana' earns special jury award at Sundance Film Festival
A film co-produced by the Philippines has earned a special jury award at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
The festival in Park City, Utah named its winners on Jan. 30, and among them is Rafael Manuel's Filipiñana. The film is a collaboration between the Philippines, Singapore, the U.K., France, and the Netherlands.
At the largest indie film event, Filipiñana received a World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision.
"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 insidious tension between luxury and labor," the jury citation read.
The film follows Isabel, a newly appointed tee girl at a golf club, who feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club.
"But as she starts to piece together a more violent picture of what lies behind the country club's pristine facade, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation with Dr. Palanca is rooted in a more sinister, shared history," the synopsis read.
The feature stars Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, and Nour Houshmand. Additionally, Agot Isidro, Angeli Bayani, and Shamaine Buencamino also appear.
Apart from the Sundance Film Festival, Filipiñana has also been selected for the 76th Berlin International Film Festival.
According to a Variety report, the project started as a feature film script that Manuel wrote while at film school in London in 2018.He then created a short film set in the same universe.
“Although it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the Philippines, I think that the golf course is a perfect metaphor for my country; it is a very large and fertile plot of land that is worked and toiled on by so many but ultimately enjoyed and profited from by only a select few,” Manuel told Variety. “With Filipinana, I would very much like to convey what it feels like to be Filipino and to have this love/hate relationship with our country which contains so much beauty but also so many problems that we don’t even know where to start picking up the pieces.”