Glaiza de Castro

For her performance as a detained dissident during the martial law era in Kip Oebanda’s independent film “Liway,” Glaiza de Castro was named best actress at the recent 29th Filipino Arts and Cinema International festival— the oldest Filipino-run film festival in the United States. Because the film premiered four years ago at the Cinemalaya festival, the award came as a surprise to De Castro, who’s currently in Canada for a project. “’Di ko naintindihan agad (I didn’t get it at first), and then Kip Oebanda told me that I just won another award,” she wrote on Instagram. De Castro had previously won the best actress trophy at the 2019 Luna Awards for the same role. She also earned nominations from the Gawad Urian and Famas. Based on a true story, the movie follows Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, or Commander Liway, and how she harnessed the power of storytelling to shield her son, Dakip, from the turmoil of life in prison that held both ordinary criminals and communist rebels. The film can be viewed on YouTube, where it’s available for free.