One of the icons in the film and television industry Marilou Diaz-Abay died on Monday night from an illness at 57-years-old. The most awarded director in the history of FAMAS has done more than 20 feature films since the year 1980.
The multi-awarded director has also received some awards and citations from various international award-giving bodies such as the International Federation of Film Critics, the British Film Institute Awards and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema.
Marilou Diaz-Abaya was awarded with the Arts and Culture Prized during the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes in 2001. Some of her films were also exhibited at festivals in Munich, Dusseldorf and Fukuoka.
During the year 1998, one of her masterpiece “Jose Rizal” which was exhibited as the closing film at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on March 1999.
She was 2005 Women for Peace, co-nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Marilou Diaz-Abaya was born on March 30, 1955 in Quezon City, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts major in Communication Arts degree from Assumption College in Makati in 1976.
She obtained her Master of Arts in Film and Television degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 1979, and pursued her post-graduate studies at London International Film School.
She is founder and president of Marilou Diaz-Abaya Film Institute and Arts Center, and film instructor at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Diaz-Abaya is married to filmmaker Manolo Abaya, with whom she has two sons, Marco and David.
