Angel Aquino nominated Best Actress at Taipei Film Festival for ‘April’ 

Aquino joins Caitlin Fang, Ma Shih-yuan, Lin Yi-ting, and Jennifer Yu in the Best Actress category.

Veteran actress Angel Aquino has earned international recognition for a project that quietly flew under the local radar, securing a Best Actress nomination at the 28th Taipei Film Festival for the Taiwanese film “April.”

The nominees were announced on May 15, with Aquino joining Caitlin Fang, Ma Shih-yuan, Lin Yi-ting, and Jennifer Yu in the Best Actress category. Lin ultimately won the award during the ceremony on July 12.

Aquino expressed her gratitude for being part of the festival, saying it was a “big honor” to meet the other nominees and experience the festivities in Taiwan.

The actress first revealed her role through an Instagram post on April 5, sharing that the film had been completed more than a year earlier but had yet to be introduced to fans.

She described the film’s Chicago premiere at the 20th Asian Pop-Up Cinema film festival as “unexpected” and “surreal.” She also received the Pinnacle Career Achievement Award during the event.

Directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Freddy Tang, the comedy-drama follows the titular Filipina caregiver working in Taiwan. She returns to the Philippines when her mother falls critically ill, bringing along her elderly Taiwanese patient while his estranged son is left to confront his father’s sudden disappearance.

For the role, Aquino learned and spoke Hakka Chinese, a challenge she said drew her to the project alongside the opportunity to work with new people in a foreign production.

“I love Taiwan, I fell in love with Taiwan when ‘April’ brought me here,” she said at the Taipei festival.

She also revealed that “April” was based on the life of a real Filipina caregiver, whom she traveled to Taiwan to meet as part of her preparation for the role.

“Caring for the elderly and other people who are actually strangers is very innate to Filipinos. I had to study, though. I went to Taiwan for a few days to see the actual April,” Aquino said in an earlier interview with Third Coast Review. “I had to learn how she takes care of her own aging.”

Beyond the recognition, Aquino said the film gave her a deeper understanding of the experiences of Filipinos working abroad.

“It’s really getting a closer look at […] their struggles and their plight as somebody who has to take care of other people or be a stranger in a country and have to adjust to another culture,” she said.

“April” first premiered in October 2025 at the Tokyo International Film Festival and was recently screened at the Taipei Film Festival in June. No Philippine theatrical release date has been announced.

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