Besting 15 other international films, Mana—the College’s Jubilee film written and directed by School of Design and Arts (SDA) Production Design chairperson and faculty Mr. Gabriel Fernandez—won the Best Film Category at the Madrid International Film Festival held last July 11, 2015.

The film which features actors Jaime Fabregas, Ricky Davao, Tetchie Agbayani, Mark Gil, Epy Quizon, Fides Cuyugan-Asenso, and Cherrie Gil––who won Best Lead Actress in the festival––garnered five other nominations namely Best Director (Fernandez), Best Supporting Actress (Cuyugan-Asensio), Best Cinematography, Best Producer for Foreign Language Feature (De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde), and Jury Award.

Gil extended her gratitude towards the College through her Facebook post writing: “To La SALLE St Benilde and to all the students who were part of #mana! We will always have Madrid !! [sic]”

A dramatic film about a family coming together in anticipation for their mother’s inheritance, Mana has also been dubbed as a “film with amazing grace and old-world charm” by Inquirer Lifestyle writer Pablo Tariman, when it first premiered last April 19 at the SDA Cinema.During the premiere, Vice Chancellor for Academics Robert Tang also shared that the film was “an opportunity for the students to have a realistic job preview of their chosen specialization.”

Madrid International Film Festival is “an international film event to celebrate the movie making whilst bringing together filmmakers and the business of filmmaking, from the smallest independent film maker to the most popular English and foreign language films and is open to all film genres.”