All posts tagged: First Light

Rafael Manuel's Filipiñana, the Philippines' official entry to the 2027 Oscars

Filipiñana Is the Philippines’ Oscar Pick — and It’s Not the Only Filipino-Language Film in the Race

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The Philippines has its official entry for the 99th Academy Awards, and it’s the film that closed Cinemalaya three weeks ago. Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana was named the Philippines’ submission to the Best International Feature Film category — the category through which countries each submit one non-English-language film for Oscar consideration — the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) announced Sunday, September 13. A National Selection Committee picked it from a shortlist of eight films. The FAP is backing two more Philippine Oscar campaigns from the same announcement: Carl Joseph Papa’s 58th, an animated docudrama on the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre, for Best Documentary Feature Film, and Agapito, from directors Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero, for Best Live-Action Short Film. All three compete in separate categories judged independently — Filipiñana isn’t the country’s only Oscar bid this cycle, just the one with the highest profile. Viewers who caught it as the closing film of this year’s Cinemalaya had already seen the version of this film that made its case internationally, before a single Oscar committee weighed …

Ruby Ruiz Just Became the Face of Australia’s Oscar Campaign

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Australia has picked its Oscar horse, and it’s carrying a Filipino passport. “First Light,” the feature debut of Filipino-Australian filmmaker James J. Robinson, has been selected as Australia’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards — the category through which countries submit one non-English-language film each year for Oscar consideration. It’s the first Filipino-Australian co-production ever made, and the first Tagalog-language film Australia has submitted in the category’s history. Leading it is Ruby Ruiz, a veteran Filipino actress who has spent over four decades working the margins of Philippine cinema in character and supporting roles before this became, in her own words on Instagram, her first international lead. The story Shot largely in Baras, Rizal, with additional filming in Metro Manila, “First Light” follows Sister Yolanda, a nun whose quiet devotion unravels after a construction worker under her care dies under suspicious circumstances. As she pushes for answers, she runs into resistance from both the Church and the state — institutions that would rather the story stay buried. Australia’s selection …