Short film produced by 3 Fil-Ams wins Oscar award

The short film "God of Love" produced by three Filipino-Americans won the Best Live Action Short category in the 83rd Academy Awards on Sunday (Monday morning in Manila). The producers of the film are Stefanie Walmsley and Gigi Dement, while the marketing and distribution producer is Stephen Dypiangco. The 18-minute movie was written and directed by Luke Matheny, who accepted the award. The film beat other Best Live Action Short contenders "The Confession," "The Crush," "Na Wewe" and "Wish 143." Walmsley and Dement both live in New York, while Dypiangco is based in Los Angeles, California. Dement was born in Baguio City and eventually moved to the US while Dypiangco, whose parents are both US immigrants, was born in America. Walmsley, who was born and raised in Manila, was a child star and an Eat Bulaga! host before she left for the US.

In an interview with GMA News stringer Janet Nepales, Dypiangco said that being a Filipino instilled in him "a deep commitment to family and a joyful sense of humor, which both impact the films I craft and the filmmakers I work with." Dement gave this advice to aspiring Filipino filmmakers who want to make it in Hollywood: "I have learned the hard way that if you try to do everything by yourself, you will never succeed. But by helping each other and forming a close community of collaborators, you can really start to produce incredible work and begin to build everyone's careers." "God of Love," considered an early front-runner for the category, is a comedic short film about "the adventures of a lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow (played by Matheny), whose prayers are answered - literally - when he receives a package of passion-inducing darts." The film previously won the 2010 Student Academy Awards, the special jury recognition at the Aspen ShortsFest, and the first prize and the King Award for Screenwriting at the New York University First Run Film Festival. — with Candice Montenegro/RSJ/YA, GMA News