Lav Diaz’s ‘Magellan’ wins Best Picture at Spain’s Valladolid filmfest

November 4 ------ Lav Diaz’s “Magellan” — the Philippines’ entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars — brought home the Golden Spike or the Best Picture plum at the 70th iteration of Spain’s Valladolid International Film Festival (or SEMINCI).

“Magellan” tied for the Golden Spike with the Kelly Reichardt-helmed “The Mastermind,” which was announced at the festival’s closing gala. According to the festival’s jury, “Magellan” was chosen as a Golden Spike winner for allowing viewers to “immerse themselves in the past from the present” and “reread colonial history through a complex and critical lens.”

The film’s “extraordinary aesthetic, photographic and temporal vision, as well as its ‘narrative ambition, formal rigor, and unique ability to intertwine historical reflection with cinematic experience” was also praised.

Meanwhile, German film “Silent Friend” by Ildiko Enyedi bagged the Silver Spike and Green Spike plums at the closing gala. “Magellan’s” achievement was praised by the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) on its Facebook page.

The Diaz-helmed film tells the story of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Gaél Garcia Bernal) circumnavigating the world amid the tensions between Spain and Portugal’s colonial campaign. He then sails to the island of Cebu where he meets Rajah Humabon (Ronnie Lazaro). The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival last May, and it was theatrically released in the Philippines four months later

Source: inquirer.net