Status : Rejected

Fresh from a Best Actress win at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, Filipino screen icon Ruby Ruiz (whose recent starring role in Australian drama “First Light” is now officially vying for an Oscar nomination) shines as Virginia, a quirky, naïve and stubborn 69-year-old widow determined to escape loneliness.

After repeated rejections for a US visa, Virginia still dwells on her late, unfaithful husband and shares a flat with her divorced daughter. A sharp-tongued friend suggests social media to brighten her dreary routine – and perhaps even find an American fiancé. Virginia reinvents herself online as a young nurse, complete with a fake profile photo. Then Steve Johnson appears. He is a divorced American war veteran who looks like George Clooney, sweet but occasionally naughty. Virginia is instantly smitten.

After directing 18 shorts, Vahn Leinard Pascual makes his feature debut with this absurdist dramedy about the allure and dangers of online relationships, tenderly dedicated to his grandmother.

Edvinas Pukšta