"Confessional" wins big at 10th CineManila Film Fest

The Cin ema One  Original and Cebu-based digital film “Confessional” received the Best SEA (Southeast Asian Film) at the 10th Cinemanila International Film festival last October 20.

It’s another big win for “Confessional” which was produced, written and directed by Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Dahis Antipuesto and featured Cebuano production, cast and dialogue.

Prior to the CineManila victory, its winning streak was already made up of an amazing seven awards in the 2007 Cinema One Originals Awards, six awards at the 24th PMPC Star Awards for movies and Best Film in the First Features Section of the 10th Osian Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in New Delhi, India last July 19, 2008.

Another Cinema One Original that scored a win at the recently-concluded CineManila was “Imburnal” by writer-director Sherad Anthony Sanchez. It won the Lino Brocka Grand Prize. Initially making his mark in the digital film “Huling Balyan ng Buhi” in 2006, Sanchez follows this triumph this year with “Imburnal.” One of the strongest contenders for the 2008 Cinema One Originals Awards this November, this is a tale of manhood that is about to erode two pubescents. While always hanging out in the crevasses of Punta Dumalog, Joel and Allen both find solitary, dent their friendship and shape their orientations in life, taking about what they witness and encounter daily in their neighborhood. Slowly they are eroding their childhood and set forth their different desires towards ‘manhood’.

Held at the Malacañang Palace, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo personally handed the awards along with CineManila Festival director Amable “Tikoy” Aguiluz, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Chairperson and Department of Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, and NCCA Executive Director Cecile Guidote Alvarez.

“Confessional” and “Imburnal” are produced by Cinema One Originals.