Photo from Instagram/@jorrybell
MANILA — Jorrybell Agoto, star of the Philippines’ official submission to the 99th Academy Awards, has been receiving critical care while undergoing treatment for lymphoma, prompting her family and friends to seek help with mounting medical expenses.
In a Sept. 23 appeal, Agoto’s loved ones said she had been admitted to the Critical Care Unit of St. Luke’s Hospital after fluid accumulated around her lungs and made breathing difficult. They said a Blake drain was being used to remove the fluid.
The appeal did not disclose the type or stage of lymphoma or provide a prognosis. No later public medical update from Agoto, her family or her representatives had been independently confirmed as of Sept. 30.
Agoto stars as Isabel in Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana, playing a 17-year-old Ilokana working as a tee girl at an exclusive country club. The film explores class, power and violence beneath the club’s polished surface.
The Film Academy of the Philippines selected Filipiñana as the country’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. Earlier this year, it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the Sundance Film Festival.
The feature grew out of Manuel’s 2020 short film of the same title, also starring Agoto, which won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.
An Ilocos Norte native who studied Theater Arts at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Agoto has worked in theater and independent film. Her credits include When This Is All Over, Tether, Primetime Mother and Cross My Heart and Hope to Die. She received a Gawad Urian nomination for When This Is All Over.
The Film Development Council of the Philippines also named Agoto among its 2026 Annual Achievement Award honorees.
