Photos from lizasoberano/Instagram
LOS ANGELES – “I’ve always believed in the power of storytelling to help us understand experiences outside of our own. That’s what I find so special about documentaries,” said Liza Soberano to Inquirer.net about why she recently joined the jury for the Golden Globes Impact Prize for Documentary.
The Filipino American actress and her fellow jury members picked Andrei Kutsila’s “Letters From the Silenced Country” as the newest winner of the Impact Prize in an announcement made at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.
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The fourth winner of the Impact Prize for Documentary since the Golden Globes launched it at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025, Kutsila’s documentary gives a voice to Belarusians who have suffered imprisonment, repression and forced emigration.
Kutsila wrote his film’s synopsis: “A documentary following five Belarusians whose lives have been shattered by state violence and political repression. Through personal letters written from prison, exile and underground life, the film reveals stories of protest, captivity, escape and moral resistance, while raising the haunting question of how much must be sacrificed in the pursuit of a nation’s freedom.
“Combining observational filmmaking, found footage, archival materials and animation based on drawings created in confinement, ‘Letters From a Silenced Country’ gives voice to those the regime sought to silence. It is a story not only of pain, but also of dignity, solidarity, love and the struggle to remain human.”
Elevating overlooked stories
Soberano added about documentaries, “They give people the opportunity to tell their own stories and bring attention to people, communities and issues that might otherwise go unseen.
“Joining this initiative was an opportunity to support those filmmakers and help give their work a larger platform. It’s what drew me to executive produce ‘My Family’s Slave,’ based on Alex Tizon’s essay.”
Ramona Diaz, the award-winning filmmaker behind such documentaries as “A Thousand Cuts,” “Motherland,” “Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey” and “Imelda,” will direct a feature documentary version of “My Family’s Slave,” Tizon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning personal essay for The Atlantic about Eudocia Tomas Pulido, who served his family for 56 years.
Liza Soberano will executive produce Ramona Diaz’s feature documentary adaptation of Alex Tizon’s ‘My Family’s Slave.’ Credit: The Atlantic
Diaz, who is now casting for voices, told Inquirer.net: “‘My Family’s Slave’ is probably the most personal film I’ll ever make. I feel this story in my bones. I’m so happy that Liza has decided to join us on this journey. Liza is Fil-Am; our values align, and from our conversations, this story also touched her deeply.”
Soberano stressed, “As an actor, I have so much respect for documentary filmmakers and the way they capture real people, experiences and moments as they unfold. Documentaries have this incredible power to challenge the way you see something or introduce you to a reality you may have never experienced yourself.
“That kind of storytelling can have a real impact, and I think it deserves to be celebrated alongside every other form of filmmaking.”
The actress, who turned heads in Hollywood in Zelda Williams and Diablo Cody’s “Lisa Frankenstein” and leads the voice cast in Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado’s soon-to-open “Forgotten Island,” said, “I’m thrilled to be part of the jury alongside Artemis Rising Foundation, the Golden Globes, Impact Partners and Think-Film Impact Production, who have done so much to champion documentary filmmaking.”
Think-Film partnership
The jury, which included Helen Hoehne, president, Golden Globes; Regina K. Scully, founder-CEO, Artemis Rising Foundation; Geralyn White Dreyfous, producer and co-founder of Impact Partners; and Danielle Turkov Wilson, CEO-founder of Think-Film Impact Production, awarded a $10,000 cash prize and a strategic partnership with Think-Film to Kutsila.
In its statement announcing the winner, the jury cited Kutsila’s film: “‘Letters From the Silenced Country’ puts a human face on a crisis too often reduced to headlines and numbers, illustrating the impossible choices people make to hold on to their humanity. Though it is rooted in Belarus, its story reaches far beyond one country’s borders, it speaks to anyone who has ever loved someone from a distance, or fought to stay connected to who they are under pressure to disappear.
A scene from the Globes’ Impact Prize for Documentary winner, ‘Letters From the Silenced Country.’ Credit: DocEduFoundation
“The way the director blends letters, drawings, and memory into the storytelling captures not only grief, but love, hope, and tenderness — the full range of what it means to remain human. It’s a powerful example of how a documentary can show how the most personal stories can also be the most universal.”
Soberano brings actor-advocate’s perspective to jury
Photos from lizasoberano/Instagram
On the importance of having actors like Soberano, who support important causes, on the jury, Turkov Wilson told Inquirer.net,
“Liza’s presence on this jury matters because her own advocacy around children’s safety, online exploitation and mental health mirrors exactly what the best documentaries do: they take an issue most people would rather look away from and force a reckoning with it.”
Turkov Wilson continued about the actress who is Save the Children Philippines’ Ambassador, “An actor who’s built her name on fiction choosing to champion nonfiction storytelling sends a signal to the industry that documentary belongs at the center of the conversation. It’s where some of the most urgent, and often the most dangerous, storytelling is happening right now.”
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Other actors who previously served on the jury include Tessa Thompson, Jharrel Jerome, Teo Yoo and Kevin Harrison Jr.
Turkov Wilson added about the Impact Prize jury at this year’s Venice festival, “What excites me most is the range of perspective at this table. Helen brings the institutional weight of the Globes, Regina and Geralyn have spent decades inside the impact-documentary world, and Liza brings the perspective of an actor who has chosen to put her platform behind her advocacy.
“When you get storytellers, producers and an actor-advocate in the same room evaluating the same films, you get a jury that isn’t just asking, ‘Is this well-made?’ You’re asking, ‘Does this move the needle?’ That’s the conversation I look forward to every time.”
Impact Prize puts documentaries in the spotlight
As to why it’s vital for Think-Film Impact Production to collaborate with the Golden Globes and Artemis Rising Foundation to present the award at the Venice Film Festival, Turkov Wilson said, “Think-Film was founded to use the power of storytelling to drive policy and social change – that’s always been our role.
“Partnering with the Golden Globes and Artemis Rising Foundation is part of how we’re doing that on one of the biggest stages in the world. Venice already treats documentaries with a seriousness few festivals do – 26 films in this year’s official selection alone. Having this award in Venice tells financiers and distributors that impact storytelling is worth investing in.”
Previous Impact Prize for Documentary winners include Eugene Jarecki, “The Six Billion Dollar Man,” awarded at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025; Ross McElwee, “Remake,” Venice Film Festival in September 2025; and Joshua and Rebecca Tickell, “Groundswell,” Cannes Film Festival in May 2026.
While the Golden Globes does not have documentary categories in its annual awards show in January, the organization’s Impact Prize for Documentary highlights its recognition of the documentary as a vital cinematic tool.
White Dreyfous said in an interview with Variety, “One of the great motivators for me with this collaboration with the Golden Globes is to give it the stature and significance of a category worthy of recognition by an organization that has had a history of journalism.
“Journalism is under siege right now. We’re seeing a rise in authoritarianism. The financing for these documentary films is drying up because the distribution is also consolidating. The people who are taking the greatest risks to tell stories and making the biggest sacrifices are increasingly not finding an outlet for their films. They’re being asked to not only be creatives, but also figure out ways to find audiences.”
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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