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. 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 in. A Résumé Built Overseas First Filipiñana is Manuel’s feature debut, expanded from his own 2020 short of the same name, which won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the Berlinale — the Berlin International Film Festival, one of world cinema’s three major annual festivals alongside Cannes and Venice. The feature premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award …