<\/p>\n
The Film Academy of the Philippines has selected\u00a0Lav Diaz\u2019s\u00a0Magellan\u00a0as the country\u2019s official submission for\u00a0Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n
Magellan was chosen from a pool of seven local contenders.<\/p>\n
More from Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n The selection was announced at the opening of the Philippine Film Industry Month celebrations organized\u00a0by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.<\/p>\n The Film Academy said that the criteria for selection included \u201caesthetic and technical excellence, embodiment of Filipino value and culture, international appeal, and the capability of the producer to mount an extensive campaign for Academy shortlisting (December 2025) and nomination (February 2026).\u201d<\/p>\n Magellan\u00a0was shot in the Philippines, Portugal and Spain, and premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>\n Directed by legendary Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, the film stars Mexican actor Gael Garc\u00eda Bernal, Arjay Babon, Ronnie Lazaro, Bong Cabrera and Hazel Orencio.<\/p>\n Magellan\u00a0tells the story of 16th\u00a0century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, alongside the Filipinos captured by slave traders in Malacca, who will eventually end up in Magellan\u2019s service.<\/p>\n The Film Academy of the Philippines added that the film \u201cprovides an uncompromising perspective on history, chronicling the final months of the explorer\u2019s life before his death in the island of Mactan. The titular figure is not portrayed as a hero, rather, Diaz presents him as a man \u2018facing his own oblivion,\u2019 challenging the familiar narrative to reveal uncomfortable historical realities.\u201d<\/p>\n Magellan was produced by Paul Soriano and Mark Victor, and line produced by Bianca Trinidad.<\/p>\n The film has been acquired for distribution by Luxbox Films for world sales and by Janus Films in North America.<\/p>\n Magellan\u00a0will screen at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival this month.<\/p>\n The film will also mark its homecoming in The Philippines with a theatrical release on September 10.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Film Academy of the Philippines is immensely excited to announce Lav Diaz\u2019s\u00a0Magellan\u00a0as our official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards,\u201d said Filipino film director Paolo Villaluna, who is also the Director-General of the Film Academy. \u201cMagellan\u00a0is a powerful, poetic film and we extend our heartfelt\u00a0congratulations\u00a0to Director Lav, Producer Paul Soriano, and the entire cast and crew.<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognize that\u00a0Magellan\u2019s\u00a0Oscars journey is only just beginning, and we stand ready to support the film. The Film Academy will work closely with them to navigate the intricacies of the Oscars campaign, and will provide government assistance when needed to ensure their vision is shared with the world,\u201d added Villaluna.<\/p>\n Best of Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Film Academy of the Philippines has selected\u00a0Lav Diaz\u2019s\u00a0Magellan\u00a0as the country\u2019s official submission for\u00a0Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards. Magellan was chosen from a pool of seven local contenders. More from Deadline The selection was announced at the opening of the Philippine Film Industry Month celebrations organized\u00a0by the Film Development Council of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1991071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[326557,317123,359755,359754,359753,359759,359757,359756,349042,359758,318702],"class_list":["post-1991070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-feature-film","tag-ferdinand-magellan","tag-film-academy","tag-lav-diaz","tag-mark-victor","tag-paul-soriano","tag-philippine-film-industry","tag-philippines","tag-the-academy-awards","tag-toronto-international-film-festival"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lav-Diazs-\u2018Magellan-Selected-As-The-Philippines-Oscar-Entry-For.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1991070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1991071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1991070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1991070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1991070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}