Ralston Jover wins Best Screenplay for Latay in New York

Reported by Celso De Guzman Caparas

​Manila, Philippines - Ralston Gonzales Jover won the Best Screenplay - Narrative Feature for Latay (Battered Husband) at the recently concluded 11th Queens World Film Festival in New York, USA.

   Jover bested four other nominees :  Bad Tidings by Samuel Russell and Christopher Maher (USA), Externo (External) by Jonathan Taub and Leandro Taub (USA); 1618 by Luis Ismael (Portugal) and Bone Cage by Taylor Olson (Canada). 

   Lovi Poe who played Laura, Nardo's (Allen Dizon) violent wife was nominated in the Best Female Actor - Narrative Feature category.  Winner was Lisa Ludwig for Mother's Day directed by Travis Carlson (USA).

   Also directed by Jover, Latay won Gold Award for Feature Film at the 2nd Wallachia  International Film Festival (WIFF) in Romania in Sep. 2020
  
   It had its world premiere last year at the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival in India in July and European premiere at the 18th Asian Film Festival in Rome, Italy in August.

Dizon and Poe bagged the Best Actor and Best Actress for the said film at the 10th International Film Festival in New York in Nov. 22, 2020. 

   Latay also stars Snooky Serna and Marielle de Leon. It was produced by Baby F. Go's BG International Productions and co-produced by Ferdy Lapuz and Dennis Evangelista.


   Presented by Benedict Realty Group, the ten-day film festival's theme was 'Hope Healing, Opportunities and Promote Equity.'  It featured 198 films from 33 countries, June 23 - July 3.