Sari Dalena is multi-awarded independent filmmaker and professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, where she got a bachelor's degree in Film and Audio-Visual Communication and also served as institute director from 2015 to 2018. A graduate of Master of Fine Arts degree from the New York University, Sari was honored as one of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' 13 Artists Awards in 2000 and awarded the Asian Cultural Fellowship for 2002-2003. She won the URIAN Film Award for two of her short films and her feature-length documentary Memories of A Forgotten War was the closing film at the Documentary Fortnight in New York City's Museum of Modern Art. In 2011, won Best Picture and Best Director from Cinema One Originals for her feature film Ka Oryang, and four major awards from Cine Filipino for her co-directed film The Guerilla is a Poet. Her three-hour experimental documentary drama film on the life and works of National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin, entitled Dahling Nick, was listed among the best films of 2015. Sari's other groundbreaking and notable films are Guerrera (Female Warrior), Himala Ngayon (Miracle Now) and Ishma.