A film featuring a Filipino family celebrating Thanksgiving in San Diego has won the Special Jury Award at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival in the United States.
Filipino-American filmmaker Kayla Abuda Galang’s short film “When You Left Me On That Boulevard” bagged the award following her Grand Jury Prize win at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Galang received the award in the Texas Shorts category of the competition held from March 10 to 19, 2023, in Austin, Texas.
The narrative short film inspired by Filipino-American family reunions was praised by judges for being “hilarious, whimsical, and fantastical”.
The SXSW Film & TV Festival jury citation reads:
“Hilarious, whimsical, and fantastical, Kayla Abuda Galang’s When You Left Me On That Boulevard offers a new take on a coming of age story centered around a community we rarely get to see on screen,” the awards website read.
“Much like a home video, the audience is invited for a chaotic but intimate look at what goes on behind the scenes of a seemingly typical family gathering. The performances stood out as authentic and rooted in genuine familial interrelationships,” the jury citation added.
“When You Left Me On That Boulevard” is a slice-of-life comedy that follows teenager Ly at a boisterous Filipino family Thanksgiving set in southeast San Diego in 2006.
Galang said her movie was filmed in Paradise Hills in San Diego, California, and is a tribute to where she grew up, as well as to her younger self, and her family.
Born in Olongapo City in the Philippines, Galang was raised in San Diego, California, and Houston, Texas. The second-generation Filipino American filmmaker frequently explores themes of home, family, and belonging in her work.
“When You Left Me On That Boulevard” earlier premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States, where it won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.
Two other Filipino films received recognition at the 2022 edition of Sundance: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan’s “The Headhunter’s Daughter”, the first-ever Filipino short film to bag the Short Film Grand Jury Prize in the competition, and “Leonor Will Never Die” by writer-director Martika Ramirez Escobar which won the Special Jury Award for Innovative Spirit, making her the first Filipina feature film director to win the award.
SEND CONGRATULATIONS in the comments below to Kayla Abuda Galang’s short film “When You Left Me On That Boulevard” for winning the Special Jury Award at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival in the United States.
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