ABS-CBN News continues its stellar run in international competitions after eight of its documentaries on pressing issues and inspiring Filipinos made it as finalists in the 2020 New York (NY) Festivals TV & Film Awards.
ABS-CBN DocuCentral, the documentary arm of the country’s largest news organization, produced six of the eight finalists. They include Korina Sanchez Roxas’ HIV Rising, which looked at the growing number of HIV cases in the Philippines, and Invisible, which tackled issues surrounding mental health.
Meanwhile, NY Festival Gold World Medal winner Jeff Canoy’s three documentaries made it to the final round. These include Ang Babae ng Balangiga (The Woman of Balangiga) that bared the untold story of Balangiga heroine Casiana Nacionales, and “Tao Po (Is Anybody Home)” for the documentary program #NoFilter that showed the lives of a mother and her daughter with special needs. His piece about the underlying effect of measles (“Tigdas”) for the now-on-hiatus program Red Alert is also a finalist.
Another former NY Festival winner, Local Legends, added two more finalists for ABS-CBN with its feature on Ric Obenza, who dedicated his life restoring the forests in Davao, and the episode about the “Father of Philippine glass sculpture,” legendary artist Ramon Orlina.
DocuCentral’s documentary Alab (Ablaze), which celebrated the courage and camaraderie of Filipino firefighters, completes the finalists from ABS-CBN News this year.
The awarding ceremony of the 2020 NY Festivals TV & Film Awards is scheduled on April 21 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. ABS-CBN Integrated News head Ging Reyes and ABS-CBN Integrated Creative Communications head Robert Labayen also return as members of the Grand Jury this year, with Reyes joining other high-ranking media professionals from all over the world in the competition’s Advisory Board again.