Known for his films "Jay," "Sampaguita: National Flower" and "Bwaya," Francis Xavier Pasion was found dead on March 6, Sunday. The award-winning director was 38.
It was Pasion's parents who found him dead in the bathroom of his house at Sct. Fernandez St., Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Inquirer has learned. The police are currently investigating and they have yet to disclose the results.
Pasion was born in Manila on Feb. 8, 1978. He graduated cum laude at Ateneo de Manila University where he majored in Communication. He founded the Loyola Film Circle, the university's first film organization that promotes education in the Philippine film arts and film production.
In 2008, Pasion directed the comedy-drama crime film "Jay" starring Coco Martin, Flor Salanga and Baron Geisler, who played the title character. The film won Special Mention at Bangkok International Film Festival 2008, Best Film and Best Editing at Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival 2008, Special Distinction and Special Mention at Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival 2009 and Audience Award at Black Movie Film Festival 2009.
Pasion's 2010 drama film "Sampaguita: National Flower" starring Jeffrey Abalos, Rinalyn Bernardo and Jorden Isip was also internationally recognized. It won the Special Jury Prize at Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival 2010 and received nominations from Busan International Film Festival 2010, Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival 2011 and Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival.
Passion's most recent film was "Bwaya," which was released on Aug. 2, 2014. Starring Angeli Bayani, Karl Medina and RS Francisco, the drama film won Best Film and the NETPAC Award at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival 2014 and the Grand Prize at Tokyo FILMeX 2014 and earned nominations from Granada Film Festival Cines del Sur 2015 and Five Flavours Film Festival 2015.
From 2012 to 2013, Pasion directed episodes of "Princess and I." The Filipino TV series starred Kathryn Bernardo, who was ranked number 80 in the list of 100 most beautiful faces of 2015 by TC Candler.
As a writer, Pasion started out by contributing additional scenes and dialogue in the 2003 film "Crying Ladies." He was also one of the writers credited for the story of "Noy," the Filipino entry for the 83rd Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language category.
Watch an interview with Pasion about "Sampaguita: National Flower" here: