Pinoys as subjects in films Oscar Best Picture eligible
In ‘Yellow Rose,’ Eva Noblezada plays a 17-year-old Filipina named Rose who struggles with her identity when her mother Priscilla (Princess Punzalan) is detained by immigration officials. The film, which also stars Lea Salonga and Dale Watson, won big tim
Struggle is a key issue among three films eligible for nomination for Best Picture at the 93rd Academy Awards — and they happen to have Pinoys as subjects and women with Filipino blood as directors.
The three films are Yellow Rose by Diane Paragas, Lingua Franca by Isabel Sandoval and A Thousand Cuts by Ramona Diaz.
In Yellow Rose, Eva Noblezada plays a 17-year-old Filipina named Rose who struggles with her identity when her mother Priscilla (Princess Punzalan) is detained by immigration officials.
13 awards
The film ---- which also stars Lea Salonga and Dale Watson ---- won big time in 2019. It swept 13 film festival jury and audience awards, including the Special Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Asian American International Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature and Best Breakout Performance for Eva Noblezada at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
Noblezada, 24, debuted on Broadway as Kim in a revival of Miss Saigon, for which she earned a nomination at the 2017 Tony Awards.
Yellow Rose director Paragas told asianjournal.com that her film “has been a labor of passion for over 15 years and I’m thrilled that we can now share this very relevant story with the world. We have the added honor of representing the real experiences of Filipino-Americans, Asian-Americans and all immigrants seeking a better life in America.”
Nominee
In Lingua Franca, director Sandoval is also the lead actor who plays a financially struggling, undocumented trans-Filipina living in New York City.
She works hard for two reasons: to send money to her mother in the Philippines; and to pay for the green card of a man who will marry her.
The film is nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards which will air live on 22 April on IFC and AMC+.
A Thousand Cuts, a documentary film by Ramona Diaz, depicts the struggle of Philippine media in covering President Rodrigo Duterte.
At the center of the struggle is Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, one of Time Magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year who is facing a string of lawsuits that she interprets as efforts to silence her and her colleagues for upholding press freedom.
“I will take this all the way to the end, and we will win it, because it’s ludicrous,” she told reporters after appearing in court.
“If you watch the film, it is both a global story and a specifically Philippine story,” Diaz told asianjournal.com.
‘Yellow Rose’ director Diane Peragas said her film ‘has been a labor of passion for over 15 years.’
Asianjournal.com quoted The Hollywood Reporter on the criteria that made the three films eligible for the Academy Awards: “The films included in this year’s list were able to qualify by opening for a week not just in a commercial theater in Los Angeles and New York, but for a week in a commercial theater or a nightly drive-in theater in any of six US metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County; the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia.
“Films that were intended for theatrical release but made available through commercial streaming, VOD service or other broadcast were also deemed eligible.”
Academy voting will be from 5 to 10 March. The members will choose five to 10 best picture nominees, which will be announced on 15 March.
The 2021 Academy Awards will be held on 26 April.