Jun Lana

Jun Robles Lana (b. 1972, Makati, Philippines), graduate of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, is an internationally acclaimed artist and the youngest Filipino to be inducted into the Palanca Literary Awards Hall of Fame. He attracted the film industry's attention with his script for the movie In the Navel of the Sea (1998), directed by his mentor Marilou Diaz-Abaya, which premiered at the Berlinale and subsequently won him Best Screenplay at the Brussels Independent Film Festival. Lana's screenwriting collaboration with other Filipino filmmakers earned him several further awards. His first independent movie Bwakaw (2012) was screened at the IFF in Toronto and the Philippine's film industry representatives chose it as the country's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations. His second film Barber's Tales (2013) followed an equally successful trajectory – among others, it won Best Director at the Madrid IFF.

50. MFF Karlovy Vary