Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s 'Verdict' Wins Special Jury Prize At The Venice Film Festival

Last weekend at the 76th Venice Film Festival held at the Palazzo del Cinema in Lido, Italy, Filipino film Verdict was awarded the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize. The Orizzonti section of the Biennale is an “international competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema,” with Verdict competing against 18 other international films. Although Best Film was awarded to Atlantis from the Ukraine, Verdict was the sole submission from Southeast Asia that made it into the festival. 

Executive produced by Brillante Mendoza under his company, Centerstage Productions, director-writer Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s first feature centers on a domestic violence case in Manila. Starring Max Eigenmann and the late Kristoffer King who passed away last February, the plot follows a battered wife who, after her small-time criminal husband hurts their daughter, flees to a local police station in hopes of finally sending her husband to jail; however, she finds that justice does not come easy, and fears that her and her daughter are increasingly under threat.

Verdict will be out in select theaters nationwide from September 13 to 19 during the third Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino