Pepe Diokno

Who is Pepe Diokno?

Pepe Diokno is a Filipino motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.

His debut film, Engkwentro premiered at the 2009 Venice Film Festival and received the Lion of the Future - "Luigi de Laurentiis" Award for Best Debut Film, as well as the Orizzonti Prize for new trends in cinema. Engkwentro follows the last 24 hours of two young gangsters on the run from a vigilante death squad. Produced on a meager budget of USD 20,000, the film also won the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the 2010 Jeonju International Film Festival, as well as the Gawad Urian for Best Editing.

Diokno is included in the book Take 100: The Future of Film, a list published by the UK's Phaidon Press, of the world's "100 most exceptional emerging filmmakers". In 2010, Diokno received the Ani ng Dangal Award from the President of the Philippines.

Diokno is currently developing his next film, Above the Clouds. The script, which Diokno wrote, received the Arte Prize at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival, as well as an Asian Cinema Fund grant from the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. Above the Clouds is scheduled to start shooting in 2013.