After Jaclyn Jose’s Best Actress win at the Cannes Film Festival for Ma’ Rosa and the news that the Brillante Mendoza film is going to be screened in Manila, there’s another piece of interesting news: the film could be the country’s entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards or Oscars.
The news was revealed by Wilson Tieng, the president and CEO of Solar Entertainment, the film’s local distributor. The original plan was for Ma’ Rosa to be screened here in December for the Metro Manila Film Festival, but it was pushed to July 6 while Jose’s Best Actress win is still hot. According to Tieng, screening it in July will also make it eligible for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars.
Two years ago, the Philippines selected Lav Diaz’s Norte: Hangganan ng Kasaysayan as the country’s entry.
Ma’ Rosa tells the story of husband and wife Nestor and Rosa who use a sari-sari store as a cover-up for a drug business. It stars Jaclyn Jose, Maria Isabel Lopez, Julio Diaz, Andi Eigenmann, Felix Roco, and Jomari Angeles.
The film was screened in Cannes’ In Competition, against films by noted directors like Pedro Almodovar, Jim Jarmusch, Sean Penn, and Paul Verhoven.
Lead star Jose won Best Actress, becoming the first Southeast Asian to win the award. Jose beat renowned actresses Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Isabelle Hupert and Marion Cotillard.
Mendoza is an award-winning director whose films Serbis, Kinatay, and Taklub were screened in various editions of the Cannes. Serbis and Kinatay were nominated for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest distinction. Kinatay didn’t win the Palme d’Or, but it won the Best Director Award for Mendoza.
Besides the Cannes, Mendoza’ work was nominated in the past for the Golden Lion in the Venice Film Festival and the Golden Bear in the Berlin Film Festival.
Watch Ma’ Rosa‘s trailer below:
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