Ramona S. Diaz

Ramona S. Diaz is a Peabody, Gotham, IDA, Emmy award-winning, Gawad Urian, PGA and Independent Spirit award-nominated Filipino American filmmaker. Her films have been screened and won awards at Sundance, Berlin, Busan, Tribeca, SXSW, IDFA, HotDocs, and other top-tier film festivals. Ramona’s independently produced films— Imelda (2004), The Learning (2011), Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey (2012), Motherland (2017), and A Thousand Cuts (2020)—have been nationally broadcast on PBS, Arte, and the BBC, amongst others. In 2023, A Thousand Cuts was honored at the 2023 Ani ng Dangal ceremony held in Malacañang Palace in the Philippines. Ramona is both a Guggenheim Fellow and a USA Fellow and was named the inaugural McGurn Family Trust Resident in Film by the American Academy in Rome. In 2017, she received a Women at Sundance Fellowship, a Creative Capital Award, and a Chicken & Egg Pictures Filmmaker Award. Ramona is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Producers and Writers Guilds of America. Her latest film, And So It Begins, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was recently selected as the Philippines’ entry to the 97th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. Ramona graduated from Emerson College and holds an MA from Stanford University. She divides her time between the US and the Philippines.