Baron Geisler and Coco Martin, lead stars of the independent film “Jay”, bring us great pride when their film won First Prize at the Asian Hot Shots Festival for Film and Video Art held in Berlin, Germany from January 13-18, 2009. Entries from China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand also participated in the said festival, but the entry from the Philippines earned the distinction which it shared with the Singaporean entry, “Salawati”. The film directed by Francis Xavier E. Pasion competed in the Best Feature Film category.

The Philippines also bagged first prize in the short film category as the 17-minute film “God Only Knows”, directed by Mark Reyes, bested entries from other countries. Another Filipino film, “Ambulancia”, took part in the festival but failed to bag any award. The winning entries won 1000 Euros each – a meager sum incomparable to the amount of pride these films brought to the country which placed the Philippines back in the map of world filmmaking industry greats.

Incidentally, the two actors mentioned above can be seen at “Tayong Dalawa” on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida.