Lav Diaz won Best Director in the 2020 Venice International Film Festival (VIFF) Orrizonti Award (Horizons Section) for his film Lahi, Hayop (Genus Pan), Saturday.
His film is “three illegal miners who journeyed back to their island after months of toiling in hellish conditions. With their hard-earned money, they traversed the sea, the mountains, and the forest until they reached their destination.”
Lahi, Hayop runs for two hours and stars Nanding Josef, Bart Guingona, DMs Boongaling, Joel Saracho, Hazel Orencio, Noel Sto Domingo, Popo Diaz, Merly Bucong, and Elvira Dayandante.
Cate Blanchett served as the president of jurors while French director Claire Denis led the judges for the Orrizonti section, where Lav Diaz won as the best director.
In 2016, Diaz also won the Golden Lion for Best Director (Main Competition) for his film, Ang Babaing Humayo (The Woman Who Left) at the VIFF. He first competed at the festival in 2007 with the Land of Encantos that won a Special Mention honor.
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Lav Diaz named best director in Venice filmfest
“I once was asked to define man, us so-called human beings, supposedly the most superior inhabitant of planet Earth and, due to the moment’s urgency, for a quick reply all I could muster was an animal simile (Man is an animal), and I felt terrible, I thought I fumbled. But then looking back now, it was in fact the better answer,” Lav Diaz said in an interview with the STAR a week before he was named best director.
“Yes, in fact, man remains on that level, animal. And I came upon a discourse exactly on this matter that, despite us being the better developed species, most of us still retain the demeanor and comportment of the chimpanzee, the genus pan, part of Hominidae, the great primate family. And so, by nature, we are violent, aggressive, obsessive, transgressive, imposing, envious, territorial and narcissistic/egotistical, very much like our cousin, the genus pan,” he added.
“Of course, the accolade given by Venice is for everyone in our country. Film is full of fear and dismay, critical of the darkness enveloping the Filipino consciousness then and now, but these are discussions that are in need of proper and challenging discourse, and with an ultimate solution,” Lav Diaz in his latest statement to STAR.