The story of the Eraserheads has traveled well beyond the Philippines. Now, the filmmaker who brought the band’s journey to the screen has earned international recognition of her own.
Director Maria Diane Ventura won Best International Director for Eraserheads: Combo On The Run at the second annual Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF) Music Documentary Film Festival in New York. The festival ran from September 25 to 27 in Stony Brook and featured documentaries centered on artists and music from different parts of the world.
The Eraserheads documentary was one of only two Asian film entries in this year’s festival, which presented 43 short and feature-length documentaries, performances and panel discussions across two theaters.
Combo On The Run screened on September 27, with Ventura and Eraserheads frontman Ely Buendia joining a conversation with the audience afterward. LIMEHOF said Buendia traveled from Manila for the screening, while Ventura came from Dubai.
For Ventura, the recognition carries particular weight because the documentary takes a distinctly Filipino music story to viewers beyond the band’s home audience.
“Every recognition Combo on the Run receives still feels a little surreal to me,” Ventura said.
She described the film as deeply rooted in Filipino culture, music and collective experience, making its ability to connect with audiences overseas particularly meaningful.
More than receiving another award, Ventura said she values the opportunity the film creates for Filipino stories and artists to gain greater international visibility.
“I’ve always believed in the power and brilliance of Filipino talent,” she said, adding that helping bring greater attention to Filipino work makes the difficulties involved in producing the documentary worthwhile.
The award specifically recognizes Ventura’s work as director rather than the documentary itself as Best International Film. LIMEHOF separately awarded Best International Feature to Louis-Philippe Eno’s The Extraordinary Life of Robert Charlebois.
For Combo On The Run, however, the New York recognition adds to a journey that has steadily expanded since its Philippine theatrical release in March 2025.
The documentary explores the rise, breakup and eventual reunion of the Eraserheads, using archival material and candid interviews to examine both the band’s history and the relationships behind one of the country’s most influential musical acts.
Its audience has since expanded considerably. The film secured global theatrical distribution, reached international markets and was later released on Netflix, making the Eraserheads’ story available to viewers well beyond the Filipino audiences that already knew the songs and history behind the band.
That wider reach also tests something at the heart of Ventura’s documentary: whether a story so closely tied to Philippine pop culture can resonate with people who did not grow up with the Eraserheads.
Ventura believes it can.
“Their legacy is much bigger than the four people in the band, or even the music itself,” she said in a separate interview, explaining that the band’s songs have become intertwined with both personal memories and the Philippines’ collective cultural history.
The New York recognition suggests that the story can travel even when that shared history does not.
More than three decades after the Eraserheads emerged as a defining force in Philippine rock, Combo On The Run is introducing their complicated history to another generation and another audience.
This time, however, the international spotlight belongs to Ventura—the filmmaker tasked with turning that history into a story that could make sense even thousands of kilometers from where it began.