BRILLANTE MENDOZA?S ?LOLA? WON the Grand Jury Prize in the World Competition of the 27th Miami International Film Festival held in the US city on March 13.

The film was awarded $25,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The fest?s web site commended the film?s star, ?cinema icon Anita Linda,? and its story for offering ?an earnest, compassionate study of forgiveness and redemption.?

The RP film bested 13 other entries from countries as diverse as Russia, Brazil, China, Bolivia and the Netherlands.

Special screening

Among the most notable directors in the section, dubbed a ?high-profile? competition among the ?world?s up-and-coming? filmmakers, is Taiwan?s Tsai Ming-Liang who fielded his latest work, ?The Face.?

Held during the Miami festival was a special screening of Argentinean Juan Jose Campanella?s ?The Secret in Their Eyes,? Best Foreign Language Film in this year?s Oscars. The screening was held after the awards ceremony.

Mendoza couldn?t go to Miami because he was at the Deauville Asia Film Festival in France which presented a retrospective of his works. From there, he proceeded to Switzerland, where ?Lola? competed in the Fribourg International Film Festival (awards ceremony set this weekend).

?Lola? is nominated for Best Film, Director and Editor (for Kats Serraon) at the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong on March 22. It is also competing in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria festival in Spain, which will close on March 20.

Copenhagen tribute

On the last weekend of March, Mendoza will serve as jury member in the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

From April 25 to May 5, three of Mendoza?s films??Kaleldo,? ?Kinatay? and ?Lola??will be screened in a Copenhagen film festival.

?Lola? will have a theatrical run in France starting May 5. It was also invited to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in May.