PHILIPPINES – Brillante Mendoza’s film Lola (Grandmother) has won anew, this time at the 8th Asian Film Festival in Rome, Italy. The film about two grandmothers bound together by a crime involving their grandsons was made after Mendoza’s Cannes Best Director win last year.
The jury was unanimous in its choice. The citation reads: "For the extraordinary narrative grace which has conjugate an almost documentary glance about the dignity of the poorer classes’ life, to a subtle ability to create characters made of a huge humanity. Mendoza does that with an incredible directorial skill in the use of space, time and light, that are perfectly inherent to a story where lightness and drama are combined together, to return us a profound reflection on the meaning of the bitter-sweet life."
Lola has made the rounds of various film festivals, winning accolades at the 2009 Dubai International Film Festival and 2010 Miami Film Festival. It has also won awards for Mendoza at the Fribourg International Film Festival and picked up Best Actress and Best Cinematography honors at Las Palmas Film Festival. Lola debuts in Australia next week at the Melbourne International Film Festival, just before Mendoza’s birthday.
A production designer for advertising by profession, Mendoza has proved himself a prolific, award-winning filmmaker at ease in the most uncomfortable social realms.
