BAKUNAWA FEST 12 BOARD OF JURY
JURY CHAIR
ADJANI ARUMPAC
Adjani Arumpac is an independent Filipina documentary filmmaker, educator, and researcher whose work bridges creative practice and critical inquiry. A recipient of the UK Government’s Chevening Scholarship, she earned her Master of Arts in Digital Media and Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is a tenured faculty member at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, where she cultivates socially engaged and politically conscious storytelling through teaching, research, and filmmaking.
Her films and video works have been presented in major local and international festivals and biennales, including the Gwangju Biennale, the Asia-Pacific Triennial, and film festivals such as Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, ChopShots Documentary Film Festival, Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, and Jocelyne Saab’s Cultural Resistance International Film Festival, among others. In recognition of her contributions and international achievements, she received the Inquirer Philippine’s Indie Bravo Award of Distinction in 2014 and the Film Development Council of the Philippines Film Ambassador’s Night A-List Citation in 2022.
JEFFREY JETURIAN
Director Jeffrey Jeturian is an acclaimed and award-winning Filipino film and television director celebrated for his sharp social realism and character-driven storytelling. Known for works such as Pila-Balde, Kubrador, and Ekstra, he has earned multiple awards locally and internationally, establishing him as one of the Philippines’ most influential contemporary filmmakers. An Adviser to Bakunawa Fest, he has helped many local filmmakers and actors in their careers in film.
Over the course of his career, Jeffrey Jeturian has received numerous prestigious accolades: Pila-Balde (Fetch a Pail of Water) won the NETPAC Jury Award at the 1st Cinemanila International Film Festival (1999) and the Gold Award at the Worldfest International Film Festival (2000); Tuhog (Larger Than Life) earned Best Picture at the Urian Awards; Best Director at the Star Awards; Kubrador (Bet Collector) won two FIPRESCI Prizes at the Cinefan Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema and the 28th Moscow International Film Festival (2006), the Grand Prize at Cinemanila International Film Festival, and the NETPAC Award at the Brisbane International Film Festival. He also received the Gawad Urian for Best Picture (2007) and Best Film of the Decade (2011) for Kubrador, along with Best Director honors from the Star Awards for Movies, Golden Screen Awards, and the Film Academy of the Philippines Awards; the film further garnered the Youth Jury Award, Special Mention at the Valladolid International Film Festival. He recently won Best Director for his new film 'UnMarry' at the Metro Manila Film Festival 2025.
TITO GENOVA VALIENTE
Tito Genova Valiente is a respected film critic, cultural scholar, public anthropologist, author and academic known for his incisive writing on Asian cinema and Philippine culture. A long-time member of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, he has championed regional films for decades and has written columns and film critiques supporting unknown filmmakers. He contributed significantly to film education, criticism, and cultural discourse in the country. He is also an Adviser to Bakunawa Fest.
He spent years in Japan as a graduate student and research fellow, studying Japanese farmhouses and Filipino migration to Japan at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. He taught in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and, later, in the Japanese Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila, teaching Japanese Cinema among others. In 2019, he became the first ever Filipino benshi – a silent film narrator - to narrate Yasujiro Ozu’s silent film comedy ‘A Straightforward Boy!’ (突貫小僧 | Tokkan Kozo, 1929) presented by the Japan Foundation Manila. In 2019, he was one of the honorees in celebration of 100 years of Philippine Cinema for his contribution and advocacies on Philippine regional cinema. Currently, he got re-elected as Vice Chairman of the National Committee on Cinema of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.