Lav Diaz teaches International Filmmaking master class in Italy

LOS ANGELES – Lav Diaz, following in the footsteps of filmmakers – from Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Campion, Cristian Mungiu, to Asghar Farhadi – is now teaching this year’s master class of the International Filmmaking Academy (IFA) in Bologna, Italy.

“He encourages filmmakers to stay close to their inner voice, to resist imitation, to think independently and to remain faithful to their own artistic voice. That is exactly why we invited him to teach at the International Filmmaking Academy,” wrote Marija Krunic, president and co-founder of IFA.

The academy was established in 2012 by Gian Vittorio Baldi, a filmmaker and producer of films by such masters as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean-Luc Godard, and Robert Bresson.

15 filmmakers from 15 countries

Lav Diaz with the 2026 master class participants in Italy. CONTRIBUTED

IFA’s 2026 master class, the academy’s 13th edition, began on June 25. Diaz is now deep into teaching the master class, which runs until July 7. According to Krunic, “For more than two weeks, over nine hours a day, Lav is guiding 15 filmmakers from 15 countries through the entire creative process – writing, shooting, editing, and ultimately premiering their own short films at the Cineteca di Bologna on the final day of the Masterclass.

“A select group of filmmakers came (for the master class) from New Zealand, Mexico, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Honduras, Canada, Finland, USA, Brazil, Italy, Japan, and Switzerland.”

Lav Diaz film screenings

While the Philippines’ internationally celebrated auteur is in this city in northern Italy; Cineteca di Bologna, a major film archive, will pay a tribute to him with special screenings of two of his cinematic gems, the recent “Magellan” and 2022’s “When the Waves Are Gone (Kapag wala nang mga alon).” Both films premiered at the Venice Film Festival and will screen in Bologna on July 3.

“Magellan,” starring Gael Garcia Bernal in the title role, will be screened in the iconic Piazza Maggiore as part of Bologna’s “cinema under the stars” summer series and Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival. Diaz will also participate in public conversations, panels, and Q and As.

Krunic said via email, “For the past 12 years, IFA hosted one great film author each year during Il Cinema Ritrovato, one of the most important festivals in the world for restored cinema. It’s Il Cinema Ritrovato’s 40th edition this year.”

By coincidence, another Filipino master filmmaker, the late Lino Brocka, was also honored with a screening last June 21 of his 4K digitally restored “Weighed But Found Wanting (Tinimbang ka ngunit kulang),” also under Il Cinema Ritrovato.

Diaz rued that he missed watching Brocka’s restored masterpiece because he had just arrived in Bologna on that film’s screening day. “Sayang nga, noong araw na dumating ako, saka naman nag-screening ang ‘Tinimbang,’ ” he said via email. “Nagkita-kita kami nina Leo Katigbak, mga taga-FDCP na namahala sa restoration. Ang ganda ng sinasabi ng mga critics na na-meet ko that night after the screening.”

Behind the master class

Lav Diaz and Marija Krunic, president and cofounder of International Filmmaking Academy. CONTRIBUTED

Diaz has taught filmmaking master classes in other countries, including Cuba, Berlin, Locarno (Italy), Croatia, and Russia. On teaching a film master class again, Diaz said, “There’s deep fulfillment in sharing experiences, especially with the youth, in every respect nurturing for both, as I’m imparting the little knowledge that I know and I’m really learning from them, as well.

“The program of the International Filmmaking Academy allows fresh and radical approaches to understanding the great medium of cinema.”

The auteur added, “The master class is a fourteen-day mentorship and collaboration, with filmmakers from different countries, and it’s spearheaded by Marija, the president of the academy. She is a true visionary. She wants to push cinema – her faith in cinema is immense.

“We are a group, a unit. I’m applying my one-on-one methodology so I can create an earnest relationship with them. Fundamentally, it’s just guidance-based, a very informal approach, to develop a deeper connection. They talk, I listen to them. I talk to them. They listen, Halos tumatambay lang kami, to develop trust, kinship.”

On the films the participants are shooting as part of the class, Diaz explained, “I didn’t ask for a specific length for the films they will be making. We’ll work on the durational aspect during post. We have only two weeks, and I believe the films will be good. I just told them to work harder.”

‘Magellan’ and ‘When the Waves are Gone’

Gael Garcia Bernal as the Portuguese explorer and colonizer in “Magellan.” Photo from Janus Films

Reflecting on his journey with “Magellan,” which took him all over the world and won the Best Film award, Golden Spike, at the Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain, the filmmaker said, “Nakakapagod na paglalalakbay, but it has given me so much, not money, because there’s no money, but it just keeps sailing, so hindi talaga nakakapagod. In fact, nakamamanghang paglalayag. It’s magical.”

Rolling Stone recently named “Magellan” as one of “The Best Movies of 2026 So Far,” while the film was added to the physical The Criterion Collection as a special “Criterion Premieres” Blu-ray and DVD release last month.

As for “When the Waves Are Gone,” he shared his memories of making the film, which bagged several Gawad Urian awards, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Actor in John Lloyd Cruz.

“We did the film during the height of the pandemic, and some members of the crew got so sick. I went location hunting in Bicol for more than two months before the shoot, and the days of walking, walking, and wandering alone gave me a transcendental insight, affirming my faith in cinema and life.

“‘When the Waves are Gone’ has the attribute of a pilgrimage, but that of traversing the mystery of the nature of man. I shot the film in 16mm, and it is a pilgrimage to the nature of cinema.

“And, of course, the film tackled the bloody and murderous drug war of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who’s now on trial at the ICC in the Hague.”

Artistic rigor, deep humanity

Asked for an update on Diaz’s master class so far, Krunic said, “We are enjoying Lav’s poetry and his generosity so much.

“Lav Diaz is one of the most uncompromising voices in contemporary cinema. Through his exploration of memory, time, and human resilience, he has expanded the language of film with rare artistic rigor and deep humanity. At IFA, we invite artists who don’t just teach cinema but challenge the way it is seen and felt. Lav embodies this fully.”

She added, “During two weeks in Bologna, Lav Diaz is bringing something deeply rare to the IFA Masterclass – total presence, radical generosity, and a way of working that dissolves the gap between teaching and creation.

“For this 13th edition of the IFA Masterclass in Filmmaking, after hosting filmmakers such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Abbas Kiarostami, Béla Tarr, Jane Campion, Cristian Mungiu, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Asghar Farhadi, and our honorary president, Ruben Östlund, Lav is pushing the experience even further.

“What Lav Diaz brings goes beyond technique. He brings a way of seeing cinema as patience, as listening, as truth. He meets each filmmaker with empathy and intensity, and gently pushes them beyond their limits – not toward his vision, but toward their own.

“In doing so, Lav Diaz is expanding the core mission of the International Filmmaking Academy – helping the next generation of filmmakers affirm their own artistic identity and providing his students with a profound transformative experience.”

‘Cinema is not a spectator sport’

Krunic shared a letter that Diaz wrote to his master class students: “Today, I am writing this almost on the fly, what comes to my mind. I’m just trying to be as honest and truthful as possible with you.

“What shall I impart to you? The best thing I can do is simply to guide or assist you, the Zen way. I was a young human being who was so shy, so naive, so ignorant, so awkward, but I was so full of idealism, and, most importantly, I had a dream. I wanted to make cinema. 

“I still don’t know cinema, I still don’t know life. I still crave enlightenment. What really keeps me going is the vision to contribute to humanity’s betterment through this great medium called cinema.

“Marija Krunic’s world, her optimism, enthusiasm, generosity, her love for cinema, were profoundly reassuring, and I can sense that she is giving you the gift of freedom, the privilege to work on your materials, on your own terms. And that, I believe, is the most important element of this activity. You’re free.

“Have some sense of urgency. Go to Ukraine, now! Go to Gaza, now! Go to North Africa, now! Go to Myanmar, now! Go to Iran, now! Go to Tibet, now!

“Cinema is not a spectator sport. The best way for me to function is to be a listener and a servant to you. I want to learn from you. Let us organize it your way, in your own language, in your poetry, in your vision.

“Cinema brings together the past, the present and the future. Cinema becomes a whole, the now. Put your soul in it. Create cinema, please. Salamat po!”

Diaz signed his letter as “A farmer, sometimes a filmmaker.”

‘Kawalan’

Photo from imdb.com

He revealed what’s next in our email interview. “We’re in post now of the new film.” That movie is “Kawalan,” which he also shot in Sampaloc, Quezon.

In their The Hollywood Reporter article on potential Venice Film Festival entries in September, Scott Roxborough and Patrick Brzeski included “Kawalan”: “Lav Diaz may be an acquired taste, but Venice has embraced the slow cinema style of the Filipino filmmaker and his latest durational opus looks Lido-bound.

“Set in the Philippines during the pre-World War II Commonwealth period, it follows the old, venerable mayor of the remote town of Kawalan, who, after learning of the impending Japanese invasion, organizes members in his community to set up a hidden settlement in the middle of the forest, where they hope to escape the impending atrocities of the war.

“Even if ‘Kawalan’ doesn’t make the competition cut, it looks a lock for Venice’s Horizons sidebar.”

For the cast of his new film, Diaz rounded up some of his regulars, including Nanding Josef, Janine Gutierrez, Hazel Orencio, Shaina Magdayao, Paul Jake Paule, Amado Arjay Babon and Jay-R Escandor.

Looking ahead, Diaz hopes to also teach a filmmaking class in the rustic town where he lives now and where he shot several recent films. He said, “Balak kong gawin sa Sampaloc, Quezon, para sa ating mga kabataan – isang masinsinang pagtahak sa sining ng cinema at sa buhay.”

Ruben V. Nepales is an LA-based journalist whose honors include nine first prizes from the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and the Los Angeles Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards. He authored “Through a Writer’s Lens,” which won first prize in nonfiction at the 2020-2021 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. In 2004, he became the first Filipino voter of the Golden Globe Awards, He is a member of the Golden Globe Foundation, one of Hollywood’s biggest philanthropic organizations.

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