Lav Diaz's eight-hour film Melancholia was the
unanimous choice of a five-man jury of the 65th Venice International Film Fest.
Last September 6, the Orizzonti prize for Best Feature Film was given to the
Filipino filmmaker-making this his second prize from the VIFF.
In 2007, Lav Diaz won a Special Mention award for Kagadanan
Sa Banwaan Ning Mga Engkanto (Death in the Land of Enkantos), a
nine-hour film that documented the death and desolation of the Bicol region
after a killer typhoon.
This year, Lav Diaz was accompanied in Venice by the lead actors of Melancholia Angeli Bayani and Perry Dizon as well as Kristine Kintana (production supervisor). Other actors included in the film are Roeder Camanag, Raul Arellano, Dante Perez, Malaya, and Soliman Cruz.
Melancholia was chosen as the closing film of the Orizzonti (New
Horizons) section of the Venice IFF. The Orizzonti Doc prize went to Below
Sea Level by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy/USA) while special mention citations
were given to Un Lac by Philippe Grandrieux (France) and Wo Men (We)
by Huang Wenhai (China/Switzerland).
Another Filipino film, Francis Xavier Pasion's film Jay starring Baron
Geisler, was supposed to compete for the Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Debut
Film but it was later moved to the Orizzonti.