VENICE, Italy??Jay,? Francis Xavier E. Pasion?s film, opened the Orizzonti (Horizons) sidebar section of the Venice Film Festival on Friday. It was the first time a debut work by a Filipino filmmaker was screened in Venice.

?Jay,? which stars Baron Geisler, Coco Martin and Flor Salanga, was officially screened at the PalaLido at 11 a.m., followed by a public screening at 3:30 p.m. at the PalaBiennale. A media screening was held the day before.

Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller and selection committee member Paolo Bertolin met the ?Jay? delegation on the red carpet. All dressed in the native barong Tagalog, the group included writer-director-producer Pasion, actor Geisler, actor-cinematographer Carlo Mendoza and Ferdy Lapuz.

?The entire experience was so overwhelming,? the 30-year-old Pasion later told the Inquirer via e-mail. ?It was too much to take for a first-time filmmaker like me, on my first international film festival.?

Surreal experience

?The theaters where ?Jay? played were full, even if it was scheduled in the morning,? Pasion, a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University, was happy to note.

Confessed Pasion: ?I wanted to cry after we were introduced to the crowd during the red carpet premiere. We all felt like stars. We were all wearing barong Tagalog. I really held back my tears. It was hard to believe this was all happening.?

?It was also a surreal experience to see your film showing in another country, being watched by so many foreigners,? he added.

?The film was subtitled in Italian. After the screening, there was sustained rousing applause. People approached us to congratulate us and get our autographs,? he said.

Pasion added: ?The Philippine flag waved proudly at the red carpet entrance of the festival. It was indeed a shining moment for Philippine cinema.

Another Philippine entry, Lav Diaz?s ?Melancholia,? will be the closing feature at the Orizzonti on Sept. 6.

Successful effort

Pasion?s successful first effort qualifies him to compete for the festival?s Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best debut film, an honor that includes $100,000 in cash, $62,500 in credit from film retailer Kodak, and a Golden Lion of the Future trophy. Award judges will review all debut films in the main competition and sidebars.

In addition, ?Jay? and ?Melancholia? are among the entries vying for the Orizzonti Award.

The jury is composed of Belgian filmmaker and artist Chantal Akerman, president; French film critic Nicole Brenez, Italian actress and documentarist Barbara Cupisti, Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin and Estonian director Veiko Õunpuu, who won last year?s Orizzonti prize with his debut feature film, ?Autumn Ball (Sügisball).?

In July, at the 4th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival held in Manila, ?Jay? was cited by the jury ?for its sheer originality, energetic storytelling, mastery of digital technology in order to tell a story that is a trenchant commentary on the technology itself, and its very revealing take on the media and the uses and abuses of the truth.? It won several awards, including Best Full-Length Feature Film, Best Actor for Geisler, the Cinemalaya Balanghai trophy and Best Editing.