Writer/Director

Philippines 

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Siege Ledesma worked in the call center industry for nine years. It was in this unlikely milieu that she found a passion for cinema.

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In 2012, she quit her day job to become a filmmaker. She took a one-year Motion Picture Production course at the Asia Pacific Film Institute. Her thesis film and first directorial feature, SHIFT  (2013) won Best Picture at the 2014 Osaka Asian Film Festival, chosen as the Closing Film at the 2014 Udine Far East Film Festival, and participated in over ten international film festivals with glowing reviews. Shift was also acquired and distributed in Japan by Pictures Dept.

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Siege is a Cinema One Originals Milestone Awardee and an Ani ng Dangal (National Award) recipient. She is an alumna/member of Network of Asian Fantastic Filmmakers (Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, South Korea), Talents Tokyo (Berlinale Talents, Japan Edition), and TFI Network’s Talent Lab (Luang Prabang Film Festival/Tribeca Film Institute).

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Her second feature film in-development, CAT ISLAND, was a recipient of the 2016 Next Masters Project Development Grant of Tokyo Filmex /Talents Tokyo, and a recipient of the Aurora Media Holdings Producing Award at the 2017 TFI Network Talent Lab/Luang Prabang Film Festival, Laos.

Her films often deal with identity, women and the working class, and online culture.