Pinoy director wins at Grand Rapids filmfest

MANILA, Philippines - First Match by Miguel Luis Calayan (photo) took the prize for Best Short Film at the recently-held Grand Rapids Film Festival (GRFF) in Michigan. The 22-year-old director’s work — the lone Philippine entry in the international juried competition — bested entries from the US and other countries.

First Match is a coming-of-age short narrative about a boy who loses his nerves and looks to his father for help before his first boxing match. The other categories of GRFF are Feature Films, Documentary Films and Student Films.

Previously, Miguel’s short film People & Plates was also selected among thousands of entries at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California last February. In 2012, his film Prima was one of the three Filipino films shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. (The two other films were the suspense thriller Graceland by Ron Morales and the documentary Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey about the life of Filipino rock star Arnel Pineda by Ramona Diaz.)

Miguel’s first docu Larry Hunt: Bucketman was featured in the 2011 Nashville Film Festival. He also garnered the Best Documentary award for two successive years at San Francisco’s Epidemic Film Festival for his works Larry Hunt and Life Afloat.

Miguel finished Bachelor of Fine Arts (Cinematography) as magna cum laude at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He also studied at Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati and finished high school at Southville International School in BF Las Piñas. He recently moved from Los Angeles to Manila and has been directing TV commercials.