And So It Begins: Oscars, Politics, and the Philippines

By Juan Carlos Ojano

Photo: Cine Diaz

Much has been said about how political the submission process for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars is. That assumption is fair. To quickly summarize the submission process, countries must form a nominating body - approved by their respective governments - that the Academy will then consider. These bodies will be in charge of selecting which films will represent the countries in contention for the award. This season, you have a contender like The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Iran didn’t submit it, director Mohammad Rasoulof is in conflict with the government and escaped the country, so Germany submitted it instead) and All We Imagine as Light (India didn’t submit it, director Payal Kapadia is outspokenly critical of the government) as proof of how contentious and political this process is. Make no mistake: everything about the Oscars is political. 

But if there is a film with a fascinating narrative entering this category, it’s the Philippines’ official submission: Ramona S. Díaz’s And So It Begins...

As a Filipino myself, let me set the table to the political context this film came into and why this selection means so much. Take it as a history lesson of sorts.

Photo: Philippines Sunday Express

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

We go back to 1965 when then-Senator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. beat reelectionist Diosdado Macapagal for the presidency. While popular during his first term, his bid for reelection in 1969 saw one of the dirtiest elections in the country, with massive spending of government sources that sunk the country into debt, as well as election-related violence enacted by government forces - aptly called “guns, goons, gold” - to ensure a second term for Marcos Sr. 

While he won the popular vote, civil unrest ensued. After numerous incidents of violence, a consistent invoking of “communist insurgency” as a pressing matter, and with the backing of the Nixon administration, Marcos declared Martial Law all over the country, securing an uninterrupted rule all over the archipelago. This reign of terror involved 70,000 detained for being “enemies of the state”, 34,000 people tortured, 3,240 killings, 398 enforced disappearances, 392 media companies closed, and looted around 5 to 13 billion dollars from the government. Marcos Sr. ruled the country for 21 years, with use and abuse of power entirely unchecked due to a centralized form of government he created for himself.

CATALYST FOR CHANGE

Tides shifted in 1983. Together with a massive economic collapse, perhaps the biggest hit to Marcos’ rule was the assassination of his central political opponent Benigno “Ninoy Aquino Jr. just moments after he arrived in Manila after years of exile in the US. Public opinion immediately pointed towards Marcos Sr. and First Lady Imelda Marcos as the masterminds. It was only a matter of time before the masses ousted Marcos out of his multi-decade dictatorship. The person who rose as the face of this movement was Aquino’s widow, Corazon “Cory” Aquino. By November of 1985, Marcos Sr. called for “snap elections” to be held in February the following year.

While election-related violence and widespread vote buying returned, the results of the election were further marred. The government's official vote-counting body proclaimed Marcos Sr. the winner, but an independent watchdog declared for Aquino as the victor. With defection of key figures from military ranks, Marcos Sr.’s reign was doomed. This led to the “People Power Revolution”, a massive demonstration where millions of Filipinos flocked to the streets all over the country. By February 25, 1986, Aquino was sworn in as the new president of the republic while Marcos Sr., together with his family and some of their loot, fled to Hawaii, assisted by the Reagan administration.

Photo: Robredo Family

"THE RELUCTANT POLITICIAN"

Enter Maria Leonor “Leni” Gerona, a college student at the University of the Philippines who used to join some of the anti-Marcos demonstrations calling. After graduating in 1986, she met and got married to Jesse Robredo who would become the Mayor of Naga City for 19 years. He would then be appointed as the Interior and Local Government secretary under the administration of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, son of Ninoy and Cory. Meanwhile, Leni served as a lawyer for the members of different marginalized communities for decades. However, Jesse’s untimely death in a plane crash threw Leni into the political arena. While hesitant to enter public office at first, she acquiesced, leading to her win as Congresswoman. In 2015, Robredo was chosen to be the Vice Presidential candidate of Aquino’s party.

This put her head-to-head against Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator who had steadily established the family’s political comeback since 1992. His campaign banked on the seeping nostalgia of his father’s rule, branded as the “golden years” of the Philippines through a widespread online disinformation campaign by Cambridge Analytica. In the end, Robredo narrowly beat him. This propelled Marcos Jr.’s incessant electoral protests that aimed to taint the legitimacy of Robredo’s victory. Through targeted online attacks - most of a highly sexist nature - the demolition job was largely successful.

ANOTHER DICTATOR ON THE RISE

Something else was happening during the 2016 elections. Rodrigo Duterte, known for his brand of misogyny and hardcore “anti-drugs” stance, emerged as the underdog winner of the presidential elections. He immediately unleashed his bloody “war on drugs” onto the nation. Described as a time of lawless violence and absolute impunity, this program resulted in a death toll of around 12 to 30,000. Robredo was a vocal critic, resulting in Duterte turning her into a political pariah within his administration. He even openly wished for her death during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around the same time, the Duterte political dynasty strengthened their hold through his son, Paolo, and daughter, Sara. Still in 2016, allegations of Marcos Sr.’s daughter, Imee, bankrolling Duterte’s presidential campaign were floated, hinting at a possible political coalition between the families.

Photo: Cine Diaz

‘PINK PEOPLE POWER’ NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH?

Again the reluctant one, Robredo filed her candidacy for the 2022 presidential elections. Meanwhile, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.  (presidential candidate) teamed up with Sara Duterte (VP candidate) to become the administration’s ticket.

Despite the efforts of Robredo’s pink-clad campaign volunteers to mount a grassroots approach to bring her electoral victory - down to doing house-to-house campaigns - and with a large swath of local celebrities openly supporting her candidacy, it was the rightwing Marcos-Duterte tandem (called “Uniteam”)  that enjoyed skyrocketing popularity among the populace. Marcos won with 31 million votes against Robredo’s 15 million (there were 10 presidential candidates). This was the result of, yet again, one of the dirtiest elections the country has seen - classic “guns, goons, and gold”, if you may.

UNITEAM NO MORE

Even before their ticket was officially announced, signs of power struggle between the Marcoses and Dutertes were evident. Rumors of “term-splitting” were circulated in the press. Even former president Duterte called Marcos Jr. a “weak leader”.While the Uniteam ultimately worked in winning the election, the same “unity” cannot be found now, two years into their administration. This past June, Sara Duterte even resigned from Marcos Jr.'s cabinet.

AND SO THE OSCAR JOURNEY BEGINS

This is the political context in which And So It Begins enters. At the heart of the film are two women. There's Robredo, the central figure of the opposition that went against the leaders of an already fractured government. And Maria Ressa, the Nobel Prize-winning journalist that was the subject of Díaz’s previous doc A Thousand Cuts. She's also one of the most vilified figures of the Duterte regime. Only afforded a limited release in August, the film nevertheless struck a chord, with many of Robredo’s supporters either flocking the cinemas or even hosting their own screenings. It has achieved a rare feat for documentaries in the country: staying in cinemas for weeks. Mind you, in a limited number of screens, but still.

And as filing of candidacies for the 2025 midterm elections are currently happening, the Film Academy of the Philippines (an organization established by Marcos Sr.) selected And So It Begins as the country’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards. It's the first time a documentary has been selected. Just last year, the country made another historic choice with The Missing becoming the country’s first animated submission.

Photo: Film Academy of the Philippines

In an interview with Film Development Council of the Philippines, Chairman and CEO Jose Javier Reyes noted that “the government has no [negative response] about the choice of this film”, taking it as a good sign that “despite the nature [and the] context of this film, we are still living in a democracy”. They also considered the success of The Missing in the awards campaign trail as encouragement to branch out in terms of the kinds of films chosen. Nevertheless, one must recognize how odd it is to see a country effectively send the Oscars a film that puts its current administration into question.

Only time will tell if this strategy will work in the favor of the film and of the Philippines, the country that has been submitting for the longest time and has yet to be nominated. For context, out of the eight countries that submitted during the first year of the Foreign Language Film category (1956), only the Philippines is still without a single nomination.

While the past decade or so has proven that this category is receptive to documentaries (North Macedonia’s Honeyland, Romania’s Collective, and Denmark’s Flee all nominated within the last five years), going with such a picture is still a risky move. This year’s slate of submitted documentaries submitted also includes Senegal’s Dahomey, Ecuador’s Behind the Mist, Palestine’s From Ground Zero (with doc shorts included), Sweden’s The Last Journey, and Uruguay’s The Door is There.

For now, here’s a trailer to And So It Begins:

And So It Begins premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will premiere on PBS in May 2025.