INTRODUCTION

LAMBERTO V. AVELLANA
National Artist for Theater and Film (1976)
Lamberto V. Avellana, director for theater and film, has the distinction of being called The Boy Wonder of
Philippine Movies as early as 1939. He was the first to use the motion picture camera to establish a point-of-view, a
move that revolutionized the techniques of film narration. Avellana, who at 20 portrayed Joan of Arc in time for
Ateneos diamond jubilee, initially set out to establish a Filipino theater. Together with Daisy Hontiveros, star of many
UP plays and his future wife, he formed the Barangay Theater Guild which had, among others, Leon Ma .Guerrero and
Raul Manglapus as members. It was after seeing such plays that Carlos P. Romulo, then president of Philippine Films,
encouraged him to try his hand at directing films. In his first film Sakay, Avellana demonstrated a kind of visual
rhythm that established a new filmic language.
Sakay was declared the best picture of 1939 by critics and journalists alike and set the tone for Avellanas
career in film that would be capped by such distinctive achievements as the Grand Prix at the Asian Film Festival in
Hong Kong for Anak Dalita (1956); Best Director of Asia award in Tokyo for Badjao, among others.
Avellana was also the first filmmaker to have his film Kandelerong Pilak shown at the Cannes International
Film Festival. Among the films he directed for worldwide release were Sergeant Hasan (1967), Destination Vietnam
(1969), and The Evil Within (1970).

BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Life
Born in Bontoc, Mountain Province, Avellana was educated at the Ateneo de Manila AB '37, where he
developed what turned out to be a lifelong interest in the theater. He taught at the Ateneo after graduation and married
his teen-age sweetheart Daisy Hontiveros, an actress who eventually also became a National Artist in 1999. He met
Daisy Hontiveros who acted in plays staged by the University of the Philippines. Hontiveros and Avellana formed a
theater arts group called the Barangay Theater Guild, which has had members such as Leon Ma. Guerrero III and Raul
Manglapus. Upon watching one of Avellana's theater productions, President Carlos P. Garcia suggested that he look
into filmmaking.
In 1939, Avellana made his directorial debut with Sakay, which depicted the life story of the Filipino hero
Macario Sakay. As a filmmaker, Avellana proved that he was an innovator. He developed a style wherein the camera
was used to represent a point-of-view. Avellana worked in the Philippine movie industry for 60 years, completing over
70 movies. His two most noted films are Badjao, which portrayed the indigenous seafaring people of Mindanao, and
Anak Dalita (Child of Indigence), about the struggles of life after World War II. The movie won Avellana the award for
Best Film at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival in 1956.
Avellana was also the first Filipino director to have his film screened at the Cannes film festival. The movie
was entitled Kandelerong Pilak (Silver Candlesticks), starring Miniong Alvarez, Teody Belarmino, Alfonso Carvajal,
Joseph de Cordova, Lilia Dizon, and Joseph Estrada.
Avellana was proclaimed National Artist for Theater and Film in 1976 by President Ferdinand Marcos. He
married Daisy Hontiveros, whom Avellana has known since they were teenagers, and who was also a National Artist.
Avellana passed away on 25 April 1991.

Film career
Avellana made his film debut with Sakay in 1939, a biopic on the early 20th century Filipino
revolutionary Macario Sakay. The film was an immediate sensation, particularly distinguished for its realism which
was atypical of Filipino cinema at the time. The treatment is the subject of some controversy today.

Avellana's Sakay toed the line with the American-fostered perception of Sakay as a mere bandit, different from the
current-day appreciation of Sakay as a fighter for Filipino independence. Raymond Red's 1993 film, Sakay hews
closer to this modern view of Sakay. Interestingly, Leopoldo Salcedo, who played Sakay in the 1939 Avellana version,
portrayed Sakay's father in the 1993 version in his final film role.
Avellana directed more than 70 films in a career that spanned six decades. Anak Dalita (1956)
and Badjao (1957) perhaps stand as the most prominent works from his oeuvre. Anak Dalita, which was named Best
Film at the 1956 Asia-Pacific Film Festival, was a realistic portrayal of poverty-stricken Filipinos coping with the
aftermath of World War II. Badjao was a love-story among the sea-dwelling Badjaos, an indigenous Filipino people
hailing from Mindanao. Rolf Bayer was the screenwriter for both films.

NATIONAL ARTIST, HIS MASTERPIECE AND FEATS

CHILD OF SORROW or ANAK DALITA, one of Avellannas significant wokrs

Child
of

Sorrow (Tagalog: Anak dalita) is a 1956 Philippine crime film directed by Lamberto V. Avellana. The film was

selected as the Philippine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 29th Academy Awards, but was not accepted
as a nominee. The film won the Best Film Award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival.
AWARDS

Year

1956

1958

Group

Category

Nominee

Asia Pacific Film Festival

Best Film

Lamberto V. Avellana

FAMASFilipino Academy of
Movie Arts and Sciences
Awards

International Prestige
Award of Merit

Result

Won

OTHER WORKS OF LAMBERTO AVELLANA

Sakay, 1939

Korea, 1952

Inday, 1940

Huk sa Bagong Pamumuhay,

La Campana de Baler, 1961

Alitaptap, 1940

1953

Lihim, 1941

Hiyasmin. 1953

Ikaw Pala, 1941

Kandelerong Pilak, 1954

Tia Juana, 1943

Damong Ligaw, 1954

Filipino, 1965

Tandang Sora, 1947

Saydwok Vendor, 1955

Claudia, 1966

Haciendera, 1947

Sarjan Hassan, 1955

Kumander Dimas, 1968

In Despair, 1950

No Money...No Honey, 1955

Destination Vietnam, 1968

Hantik, 1950

Lapu-Lapu, 1955

The Evil Within, 1970

Ang Bombero, 1950

Kumander 13, 1956

Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, 1974

Satur, 1951

Anak Dalita, 1956

Kapitan Kulas, 1975

Prinsipe Amante sa Rubitanya,

Walang Sugat, 1957

Waywaya, 1982

1951

Tagumpay ng Mahirap, 1965

Portrait

of

the

Artist

as

Badjao, 1957

Pag-asa, 1951
Sa Paanan ng Nazareno, 1952
Haring

Scout Rangers, 1964

Solomon

Sheba, 1952
195
Won

6
Best Film
Amor Mio, 1952

at

Reyna

Rosalina, 1958

AWARDS OF LAMBERTO

Faithful, 1958

AVELLANA

Kundiman ng Lahi, 1959

Anak dalita (1956)

El Legado, 1959
Cry Freedom, 1959

Ronquillo, 1952

Asia-Pacific Film Festival

Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films

Won

La campana de Baler (1961)

196
Conde de Foxa
1

La campana de Baler (1961)

Award
Won

El legado (1959)

195
Conde de Foxa
El legado (1959)

9
Award

FAMAS Awards
196
9
196
6
196
5
196
0

Nominated

Best Director

FAMAS Award

Kumander Dimas (1968)

Nominated

Best Director

FAMAS Award

A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1965)

Won

Best Director

FAMAS Award

Scout Rangers (1964)

Nominated

Best Director

FAMAS Award

Cry Freedom (1959)

Best Director
Kumander 13 (1956)
Best Story

195
7

Nominated

Medalyong perlas (1956)

FAMAS Award

For the segment "Welga".

Best Screenplay
Medalyong perlas (1956)
For the segment "Welga".

195
4

Won

Best Director

FAMAS Award

Huk sa bagong pamumuhay (1953)

Gawad Urian Awards

Won
198
1

Lifetime
Achievement
Award

Metro Manila Film Festival

Won
1991

Posthumous Award

INSIGHTS

LAMBERTO Avellana is probably the only living and active Filipino director who has succeeded in hanging on to
nearly four decades of filmmaking. Almost alone, he stands as witness to the ups and downs of Philippine cinema, one who
has seen and experienced it all, from the fumbling 30s (when sound was in its infancy) to the Golden 50s, to the corrosive
60s and on to the contemporary times. He step-into the world of celluloid when he was only 23, fresh from college (Ateneo,
A.B., magna cum laude, Class 37) and full of hopes. His first film was Sakay.
According to pioneering film critic T.D. Agcaoili, the directors first movie marked the introduction of a truly
creative Philippine cinema, employing organically in film some of the elements of modern stagecraft and dramaturgy that
had been lacking in Philippine movies.
Of Avellanas first film, which depicted the life of the famous guerilla leader of the Philippine-American war,
Agcaoili has written thus: Sakay is an intelligent an disturbing film disturbing in the sense that it presented history in a

new light, the history of early Philippine guerilla warfare, of underground resistance at a time when the Americans, against
whom the guerilla leader Sakay fought, were sovereign in the Philippines.
Like the legendary character of his first venture, a rebel who refused to surrender to the new colonizers, Avellana
has remained unvanquished by the oncoming forces of age and change.
Avellana came to the cinema from the stage. His prodigious beginnings consisted of stage plays, debates, oratory
and public speaking.