CNN Philippines (February 22) – 'John Denver Trending', which was Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival awards’ best full-length film winner last year, received critical acclaim on the international scene once again.

The makers of the independent movie broke the news in a Facebook post that said it scored three of the major awards at the 26th Festival International des Cinemas d'Asie de Vesoul in France – audience award, special jury award and critic award. The annual festival focuses on cinemas of Asia.

John Denver Trending, which premiered in August 2019, led the field of fiction category in total top prizes. Other winners were films from India, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Lebanon.

The film directed by Arden Rod Condez took “Best Project” at the 5th Hanoi Film Festival in Vietnam in 2019. It was also a nominee in the 24th Busan Film Festival’s “Best Film” category.

The movie follows the story of a 14-year-old boy, whose life was upended after a video of him bullying his classmate went viral.