If you’re searching for something to watch this Holy Week, Netflix offers a documentary perfect for your holiday binge. “A Queen’s Runway” takes you behind the scenes of one of the Philippines’ biggest obsessions — beauty pageants — following the fierce competition of young women vying for the crown at Miss Universe Philippines, a contest that blends beauty with pride and identity.

In the Philippines, beauty pageants are more than sequins and sashes; they are a spectacle of identity, regional pride, and, for some, social mobility. Over decades, the country has burnished its status as a global beauty superpower, collecting a gleaming lineup of “Big Four” crowns — Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, and Miss Earth — with a consistency that borders on the athletic.

The film, which premiered on Netflix on April 10, zeroes in on the months-long crucible leading up to the Miss Universe Philippines pageant, where ambition, beauty, and strategy collide in high heels. The contest, itself a gateway to the Miss Universe stage, has produced four titleholders so far — each one crowned under the unforgiving glare of global attention.

First came Gloria Diaz in 1969, who charmed judges in Miami Beach and parlayed her win into an acting career, becoming a fixture in Philippine cinema. Her most iconic role arrived in 1975’s “Ang Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa”, a film whose title alone hints at the country’s deep entwinement of beauty and mythology.

In 1973, Margie Moran claimed the crown in Athens, joining an elite group of winners who also nabbed the Miss Photogenic award. Moran, from a family of political pedigree, steered clear of show business, opting instead for entrepreneurship and cultural advocacy. She ran a resort, produced documentaries, chaired Ballet Philippines, and, in 2023, added author to her résumé with “My Universe”, a travel memoir spanning decades.

It would be another four decades before the Philippines seized the crown again. In 2015, Pia Wurtzbach, born in Germany to a Filipino mother and German father, stood center stage in Los Angeles — briefly overshadowed by host Steve Harvey’s now-infamous flub, mistakenly awarding the title to Miss Colombia before backtracking on live television. Wurtzbach, already a model and actress, later expanded her orbit into culinary arts, media, and fashion, becoming in 2024 the first Filipino ambassador for Bulgari.

Then came Catriona Gray in 2018, whose victory in Bangkok capped her journey from Miss World finalist to Miss Universe. Born in Australia, Gray was a pageant polymath: a singer trained at Berklee, a martial artist, and an advocate whose performances fused cultural storytelling and technical precision — the “lava walk” heard around the world.

“A Queen’s Runway” captures more than just gowns and crowns; it catches the relentless pursuit of perfection in a country where beauty, as the documentary reminds us, is both personal ambition and national export.