Foreign Magazines Lavishly Praise Philippine Oscar Entry 'Bwakaw'

An AMERICAN magazine, Film Comment of the Film Society of the Lincoln Center, listed the Philippines’ official Oscars entry “Bwakaw” as one of this year’s “50 Best Undistributed Films of 2012” in a yearend survey of more than 120 film critics, journalists, film section editors, and past and present contributors worldwide. Joining the film by Jun Robles Lana in the top five films that made appearances at film festivals or special screenings worldwide, but remain undistributed, are Joachim Lafosse’s “Our Children,” Song Fang’s “Memories Look at Me,” Alan Berliner’s “First Cousin Once Removed,” and Ying Liang’s “When Night Falls.”

Last October, “Bwakaw” was the only Asian film to make it to the prestigious list of TIME magazine’s “10 Films to Watch” at the 50th New York Film Festival, one of the world’s oldest and most anticipated film festivals organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The bid of the film starring legendary actor Eddie Garcia to become the first ever Filipino film to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards gets a strong boost as it continues to get a favorable standing in the leading Oscar prediction site AwardsCircuit.com. The 83-year-old Eddie just won Best Actor for “Bwakaw” at the Asia Pacific Film Festival held in Macau last December 15 where he got a standing ovation. Let’s hope all this will contribute to "Bwakaw" making it to the list of top 5 nominees in the best foreign language film category.