Francis Xavier Pasion and Mark Reyes, Filipino film makers, won top awards at the Asian Hotshots Berlin Film Fest 2009 that took place January 13-18.

Other countries participants were from: Japan, China, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and India.

With the 96-minute movie, Jay, Xavier Pasion won first prize. The movie talks about a story about the murder of a gay school teacher that was told a grim, incisive satire and textbook of the corruptive and manipulative mechanisms of mass media.

Meanwhile, Reyes, God Only Knows was named Best Short Film at the Festival. The 17-minute movie is a story about the plight of a woman living an urban community and how she tried to look for foster parents of her infant son.

Other winners for the full-length film are:

• Salawati of Marx X Grigoroff from Singapore (a story of a 12 year old Malay girls' life that was changed because of a brother's swimming accident.)
• Invisible Children of Brian Gothong Tan from Singapore (won second place for the full-length movie)

[via]