Filipina filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone (above) deeply explored the real-life experiences of girls who got pregnant as young as 16 in creating her hit movie Sunshine. From its initial limited screening, the award-winning film, which follows the story of a young gymnast who finds out she’s pregnant ahead of the national team tryouts, has been able to reach a variety of moviegoers and spark meaningful discussions on abortion as seen in reviews shared on social media.
Prior to its local release, the film made waves in international film festivals—from its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival to its Crystal Bear for Best Film at the 75th Berlinale. It was also nominated for Best Youth Film at the 17th Asia-Pacific Screen Awards and was part of the 2025 Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Going beyond the praise and recognition it has received, Jadaone sees Sunshine not just as a fictional character, but as a human call for better sex education and support for women’s reproductive health.
In the second episode of The Generations Podcast, Jadaone shared that it took them five years to complete the film as it involved in-depth research on young girls who unintendedly got pregnant in 2020. “It was during the pandemic, so at that time, I was starting to interview teenagers who continued with their pregnancy, already mothers at 17 or 18, and those who also terminated their pregnancy,” she said.
She was only able to form a clear vision for the screenplay after hearing their real-life stories. “After the initial research that I did, I realized it would be really a disservice to these kids if I won’t continue on with making this into an actual film,” she said. “So it was more of these girls pushing me, not really actually telling me, but their haunting stories were really the push that I needed for me to continue on with writing the script.”
Jadaone, who was also behind the hit films Never Not Love You and Fangirl, said that the moms she talked to were aged between 16 and 20 then, coming from private schools and less privileged households. “When I do research, I interview people as close to my characters as possible. So in this case, I also interviewed athletes.
Lack of laws supporting sex education, abortion
Jadaone noted a common denominator among her interviewees during the pre-production process: They lacked access to sex education and reproductive health and knowledge of the options they can have. This became evident in one of the film’s characters, 13-year-old Menggay—played by Rhed Bustamante—who didn’t know she was expecting a child.
She stressed that the lack of laws supporting sex education and decriminalizing abortion plays a huge part in why pregnant teens resort to unsafe abortion practices. Research by the Philippine Safe Abortion and Advocacy Network stated that around 1.26 million Filipino women induced abortion in 2020. A study released in the same year by the University of the Philippines showed an estimated 1.1 million abortions occurring in the country annually.
She also noted how women seem to be on the losing end when it comes to the lack of laws that are supposed to protect their rights. She emphasized that banning abortion “doesn’t stop these kids from having abortions, doesn’t stop them from actually dying from abortion, getting abortion.” She continued, “It only makes the abortions unsafe and really bad for these kids in general.”
Bringing Sunshine to life became an incredible learning experience for Jadaone. They always tell you: ‘Write what you know.’ But in Sunshine, I wrote what I didn’t know. And because I didn’t know, I had to know,” she said. “So while writing Sunshine, it was really getting an education about this.” Being aware of abortion ahead of the project was one thing for Jadaone, but working closely with non-governmental organizations promoting women’s reproductive rights was another.
Beyond that, Jadaone has also been given the opportunity to educate others about women’s issues. Following its massive success, Jadaone—as well as its producers Geo Lomuntad, Dan Villegas, and Bianca Balbuena—are bringing real change through the film in their own ways like hosting block screenings for legislators.
The Generations Podcast is now available on Spotify and YouTube, executive produced by Sheila Paras of PhilSTAR L!fe and Roby Alampay of PumaPodcast.