Cinema alumnus Kenneth Dagatan’s In My Mother’s Skin is the only Filipino film that will premiere worldwide at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States that begins on January 19, 2023. 

The festival received a record number of 15,855 submissions and Dagatan’s film was chosen to be one of the eight to be featured in the midnight section. It is the only non-English language entry in the section. 

The movie tells the story of a young girl who tries to protect her mother while being stranded in the war-stricken Philippines and threatened by a sinister flesh-eating fairy. It is starred by Filipino actors Beauty Gonzales, Felicity Kyle Napuli, James Mavie Estrella, Angeli Bayani, Arnold Reyes, Ronnie Lazaro, Noel Sto Domingo, and Jasmine Curtis-Smith. 

Aside from being the sole Filipino film, In My Mother’s Skin also marks the first co-production between the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is produced by Epicmedia Productions (Philippines), Zhao Wei Films and Clover Films (Singapore), and Volos Films (Taiwan).

Dagatan is a graduate of Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Cinema at the University of San Carlos Talamban Campus. Aside from this Sundance-bound film, he also made headlines when his first horror movie, Ma, was screened at the New York Asian Film Festival in 2019.