Brillante Mendoza

Brillante Mendoza (Tagalog: [brɪlˈjantɛ mɛnˈdɔsɐ]; born July 30, 1960), also known as Dante Mendoza, is a Filipino independent filmmaker. Mendoza is known one of the key members associated with the Philippine New Wave.

Mendoza was born and raised in San Fernando, Pampanga. He took advertising arts of the College of Architecture and fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas.

Mendoza has directed sixteen films since 2005, also he credited some cinematographer and production designer under his alias. His first collaborated with actor Coco Martin in seven films: Masahista, Kaleldo, Foster Child, Tirador, Serbis, Kinatay, and Captive.

Mendoza directed the first and second State of the Nation Addresses of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Mendoza is the first Filipino filmmaker to receive the Best Director award for his film Kinatay at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. His 2009 film Lola won the award for Best Film at the 6th Dubai International Film Festival.

Mendoza's 2012 film Captive was shown in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012. His 2012 film Thy Womb competed for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival and earned Mendoza the award for Achievement in Directing at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2012.

Mendoza's film Taklub was selected to be screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Mendoza is one of the few people and is the only Filipino filmmaker to be nominated in all three major prizes from "The Big Three" (Cannes, Berlin, Venice).