MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Sunshine, a recent sports coming-of-age film, has been making waves in cinemas since its nationwide release. Now on its sixth week and with its sights set on the Philippines’ entry for the 98th Oscars Best International Feature category, the film’s journey is anything but dim.
Last June 18, 2025, adobo Magazine and the adobo SheCreative Network brought together the film’s creative team for a VIP screening and panel discussion at SM Aura’s Premier Director’s Club in Taguig City, Philippines. Behind the applause and accolades, however, lay a creative process filled with risks that the team had to navigate to bring the story to the screen.
Risk #1: She’s still a child — letting women voice the hard truth
The first risk is the most necessary: letting women speak for their experiences. For Sunshine director Antoinette Jadaone, this meant starting with their stories. In 2020, she started interviewing young women and girls who experienced teenage pregnancy, women’s rights groups, and religious persons to capture the truth about the country’s day-to-day Sunshines.
“It opens your eyes to how big of a responsibility is given to filmmakers because this isn’t just any other story, it’s based on a reality,” she said.
Driven by the unique experiences of women and girls navigating teenage pregnancy, Sunshine found inspiration in using rhythm gymnastics as a storytelling device. Direk Tonet shared that she initially considered women’s volleyball, but eventually chose rhythm gymnastics — a unique sport that celebrates women and femininity by being one of the only two sports exclusive to women in international competitions. Behind the grace of the sport, she also recognized how it demands immense commitment: with the Olympics held only every four years, gymnasts face the added pressure of monitoring their bodies while they change over time, making every second crucial in the pursuit of their dreams.
For gymnasts who experienced teenage pregnancy, the stakes are even higher — once their bodies change, the possibility of getting back into routine and reclaiming their dreams become increasingly difficult. And while not every young woman or girl aspires to become an Olympian, the disproportionate impact of teenage pregnancy on young women and girls is a collective experience with time, opportunity, and choice never really theirs alone to control. They face dreams that become harder to reclaim once interrupted, not because of their lack of will to pursue their dreams, but because of the weight of shame, blame, and the absence of real support from their communities.
Even then, Sunshine was not written just as a victim, but a young woman with agency. When asked how Sunshine was different from other women characters written by Direk Tonet, she simply emphasized that she is a young woman: “Sunshine is different because she’s not yet a woman, she’s still a child. [While] my other characters know what they want, from the start, Sunshine knows what she wants too. She doesn’t want to be a mother. But because she’s still a child, she’s not equipped with the right support, the right options, and she’s alone in traversing the decision that she wants to make.”
Sunshine’s story holds this contradiction — her agency is real, but it exists within systems that deny her the care, choices, and solidarity she deserves.
For the women in the creative team of Sunshine, reflecting this hard truth is the reward of the film itself. Claudia Cojuanco, the Executive Producer of the film, shared that she believed in the project and its message as soon as it was presented to her despite the risks of not having a return of investment, “I know the country — maybe the public-at-large — doesn’t express the same message, but I was hoping for them to still be able to connect [their perspectives] to the discussion.”
Risk #2: Small circles of care, creating a team of believers
It is a harsh truth that advocacy films that center on women’s bodily autonomy like Sunshine continue to face challenges in breaking into mainstream media in the Philippines. Bringing such a story to the screen demands more than resources; it requires a team of believers willing to take the risk. For producers Dan Villegas and Geo Lomuntad, the biggest hurdle was always the budget. Building that team meant finding investors who trusted and believed in the project — fortunately, they found a few. Through persistence and hard work, they were also able to secure the support of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, a boost that helped bring Sunshine closer to the screen, including the Toronto International Film Festival last September 2024.
While budget moved production, the creative team also took the time to acknowledge the entire crew of Sunshine — people Direk Tonet handpicked to ensure they shared the film’s vision, including actress Maris Racal, who had always been their first choice for the role. Beyond Maris’ performance, what stood out was her commitment to the film’s advocacy. Direk Tonet shared that Maris was in the frontline of interviewing girls, whose stories shaped Sunshine. Even on the eve of taping, she could be found listening to their experiences via Zoom call, “So it’s really a big thing for people when they see Maris coming to talk about Sunshine — it’s really her, it’s not just a character. She managed to treat the film like it’s really her life, her advocacy.”
Creating a team of believers meant guarding the film’s core non-negotiables. When asked whether there were any creative or thematic elements that the team refused to compromise even for commercial considerations, producer Bianca Balbuena shared one of the biggest debates: whether to make the film’s ending clearer to appease private equity backers and improve its chances commercially. In the end, however, they chose to make a stand.
“[Direk] Tonet once said, ‘It’s all or nothing.’ So, in the end, it was very clear with its principles and what it stands for,” Bianca explained.
The spirit of protection and community — the belief in Sunshine and what she represents — was not only felt behind the camera, but also seen within the film itself. Sunshine brings to light in loud and striking ways how young women and girls are pushed, stumbling to unsafe corners of the internet to learn about their reproductive health and methods of abortion, and navigating a public health system that offers little more than judgment and neglect. Despite the harshness of Sunshine’s surroundings and the weight of public judgment, Sunshine’s story is also one of being cared for by people who stood with her and protected her. Even in the two hospital scenes — drawn from the realities of the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila, where two to three women share a bed — the film shows that while institutions often respond with coldness and stigma against pregnant young women and girls, the mothers themselves create spaces of warmth and solidarity. It is within these small circles of care that women’s agency survives, and Sunshine brings that overlooked, radical solidarity to light.
Risk #3: All or nothing—Building a community for our Sunshine
Now in its sixth week in cinemas, Sunshine is reaching audiences and lawmakers in ways that have taken its team by surprise — its impact too glaring to ignore, sparking conversations and urging progress on policies surrounding teenage pregnancy prevention. Direk Tonet shared that while they hadn’t initially planned screenings for policy-makers, the idea emerged during interviews with organizations such as Save the Children – Philippines; Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN); Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR); and other women’s groups, where she learned about the struggle to pass bills, such as the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy (PAP) Bill, the Decriminalization of Abortion Act, which is different from Legalization of Abortion.
She recalled lawmakers expressing their empathy towards Sunshine during the screening. In response to it, she stressed their role in shaping Sunshine’s story, “It’s one thing to have empathy and understanding for girls like Sunshine, but it’s another to actually do your job. Put it into law.”
She found it troubling that, from her own childhood until present, many young women still learn about sex from friends rather than schools or parents — and the stakes are even higher today with unequal access to reliable information online. She believes that the proper implementation of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education is the first step to prevent teenage pregnancy, “When we teach kids as early as nine years old, eight years old, about consent, about their private parts, then they would be able to protect themselves.”
This is the harsh truth — the story that needs to be told by a team of believers. Sunshine opens up a bigger discourse on young girls’ autonomy over their bodies and towards protecting themselves from sexual violence by understanding consent, how they navigate the risks of unwanted pregnancies, and onto owning their futures. When asked about the responses of the audience to the film, producer Bianca shared that even viewers with differing beliefs didn’t respond negatively, “I think that’s the power of the film. Even if you’re not pro-abortion or pro-choice, you still feel something and you can’t keep quiet now. It brings out a storm inside you.”
The film lingers because it forces the audience to ask: If a young woman dreams of becoming a dentist, or a development worker, or a creative; if a girl wants to keep playing sports tomorrow or continue going to school, are those any less worthy dreams? Sunshine calls for a transformation, not just in the way families, communities, and institutions view young women and girls, but in how society values their autonomy, their choices, and the futures they deserve. In this light, the risks taken in telling young women’s stories are never in vain.
Sunshine has garnered multiple accolades on the international film circuit, winning the Tartuff Audience Award at the Tartuff PÖFF Love Film Festival last August 13, 2025, as well as both the Narrative Feature Jury Award and the Narrative Feature Audience Award at the Austin Asian American Film Festival last July 02, 2025. In February, the film also took home the Crystal Bear for Best Film at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. Last December 2024, Sunshine was also featured in the World Cinema Now section at the prestigious Palm Springs International Film Festival. Following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Sunshine received a nomination for Best Youth Film at the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards in October 2024.
Watch Sunshine, the film that puts young women’s experiences at center stage, both locally and internationally. Leap into SM Cinemas now. Tickets are priced at PHP 275.00 in Metro Manila and PHP 230.00 in provinces.
About The Writer
Sophiya Montaño is a program officer at the Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau, Inc. (WLB). Working with WLB for almost two years, she facilitated programs pushing for the advancement of women and girls’ rights against all forms of violence and discrimination, including capacity-building activities for indigenous girls in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, Philippines.
In 2023, she became the coordinator for WLB’s Iskwela Peminista (Feminist School), which aims to build the capacity of indigenous women and girls, rural women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, and LBTQIA+ women and girls to become advocates for ending gender-based violence, particularly sexual violence, through intergenerational learning and movement building.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from De La Salle University – Dasmariñas (DLSU-D), where she received the Best Thesis award for her study on the compliance of the City of Dasmariñas with the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raised by two moms, her commitment as an activist grew not only for gender advocacies but also for women’s rights. She has participated in various trainings, including a youth camp promoting safe spaces organized by Amnesty International Philippines. She also volunteered with an organization that provides children in conflict with the law access to recreational activities and served as Chief Executive of her university’s program council. Sophiya has shared her knowledge and experiences as a child of same-sex parents in seminars organized by student organizations and institutions such as DLSU-D’s Gender and Development Committee and the University of the Philippines College of Law.
