Cordilleran Film "The Headhunter's Daughter" wins first Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival

Photo Courtesy || Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan

Cordillera - A film by Cordilleran-Visayan filmmaker/director Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan "The Headhunter's Daughter" has won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the recently held 38th Sundance Film Festival in the United States of America.

The film was the only second Filipino short film to have ever compete in the Sundance Film Festival.

Eblahan's historic win at the Shorts Program 4 completes the country's successful participation in the festival as Martika Escobar's "Leonor Will Never Die" claims the 'Special Jury Award for Innovative Spirit' which is also country's first-ever win in the festival's World Cinema Dramatic Section.

Don Josephus Raphael is an independent filmmaker born of Ifugao and Visayan descent.

Eblahan works explore themes of trauma, and nature told through the cosmic lens of post colonial spaces and indigenous identities. 

In 2021, one of Eblahan films entitled "Hilum won the Student prize and received special mention from the international jury at Clemont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

Sundance Film Festival is the largest independent film festival in the United States that brought wider recognition for iconic films such as “Saw,” “The Blair Witch Project,” “500 Days of Summer,” and “Boyhood.”