And the winners are…

What a difference three months make!

Three months ago at the controversy-ridden Metro Filmfest Awards, we saw on national television angry faces contorted and distorted in defeat, protesting the jury’s decision.

Three days ago at the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, held at the UP Theater in Diliman, Quezon City, the same faces were stretched from ear to ear in wide, wide smiles of victory, their moment in time unperturbed by not even a whisper of protest.

There’s a lesson to be learned in these two awards nights. One, winners should be magnanimous in victory and losers (like those in the Star Awards) should concede in quiet dignity. It’s as simple as that. When you submit yourself to a board of judges, regardless of whether or not you believe in the integrity and/or intelligence of the judges, you must respect their decision, "right" or "wrong".

I congratulate Vilma Santos for winning the Best Actress plum for her radical performance as a complacent-housewife-turned-activist in Dekada ’70 in the same way that I congratulate Lualhati Bautista not only for winning (at last, at last!) the award for Best Adapted Screenplay (also for Dekada ’70, based upon her Palanca-winning novel) but for not leading a walkout to protest Dekada ‘70 Christopher de Leon’s loss of the Best Actor award to newcomer Yul Servo (for Laman, beating such other heavyweights as Aga Muhlach for Kailangan Kita, Eddie Garcia for Mano Po and Ricky Davao for American Adobo).

Lualhati Bautista graphically flashed the two faces of showbiz – you know, the Sad Sack face and the Mary Poppins face.

I’m giving three loud cheers for the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) for making good (very fair) choices that got the nod of most everybody. It was refreshing and heartening to see not the same, old faces (Ma’am Vilma included) clutching trophies close to their hearts but new ones, such as (aside from Yul) Kris Aquino as Best Supporting Actress (for Mano Po, the movie that won for her the same honors at last December’s Metro Filmfest and the PASADO Awards given by teachers also last Saturday night), and Piolo Pascual as Best Supporting Actor (for Dekada ’70 for which he also won at the same Metro Filmfest).

But I’m applauding the loudest for Gil Portes for winning the Best Director award for Munting Tinig (Small Voices), winner as Best Picture, the "small" film whose distribution rights have been bought by Warner Bros. no less which scored very low at the local box office but won praises from critics both here and abroad. Direk Gil was so euphoric with victory that, when he went up the stage to collect the second trophy (Tinig also won the awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Editing and Best Child Performer for Bryan Homecillo), he said something like "Nakakapagod umakyat-pumanaog sa stage." O, laban kayo?

An ironic/comic touch was provided, unwittingly, by Camille Prats who co-presented the New Movie Actor award to former Powerboy-now-Power/Four-member Jordan Herrera for, what an apt title, Gamitan. If you still don’t know, Camille and her family have filed a case against movie columnist Jobert Sucaldito for writing that Camille hid Jordan under her bed presumably during a tryst.

The most "surprised" winner of the night was Onemig Bondoc who was named Darling of the Press even if, according to many movie writers (this one included) Onemig can’t even remember the names and faces of movie writers even if they have interviewed and written about him a dozen times. Did the fact that Onemig bought several pages of ads in the Star Awards souvenir program make him such a "darling"? Why not?

One awards night down; three more to go (the FAMAS, the Film Academy Awards and the Urian Awards).

Will their choices be as "fair" as those of the PMPC members? Will they spring some surprises? Will there be, uh, protests and walkouts? Will more trying-hard-to-steal-scenes bold starlets show up at future awards nights brazenly displaying their not-so-really-rich natural resources behind see-through clothes that look more like curtains than "gowns"?

Stand by.

More ‘winners’

Maritoni Fernandez and Jackie Aquino, who co-star with Kris Aquino and Robin Padilla in FLT Films’ You and Me Against the World, also feel like winners in their own right, armed not with wooden or man-made trophies but "live" ones. Warm bodies, no less.

Now into remission after rounds of chemotherapy for breast cancer, Maritoni is open about her romance with Hans Montenegro, former husband of Bb. Pilipinas-World Cara Subijano (with whom he has a child; they’re divorced) and immediate ex-boyfriend of Miriam Quiambao (happily going steady with a handsome Italian).

Asked jokingly if she saw that infamous videotape of Hans with his, uh, "defenses" down, Maritoni replied with a laugh. "I didn’t, although I swear that Hans is a truly gifted guy." If you know what she meant…

Also now separated from her husband Alex (a businessman by whom she has kids), Maritoni denied that the two men had a violent encounter recently at a restaurant, with Alex reportedly poking a gun at Hans.

"My (ex-) husband is not a violent man, even if he’s a member of the shooters’ club," said Maritoni. "He’s a peace-loving person, and so is Hans. Walang enkuwentrong naganap."

In the next breath, Maritoni also denied that she and Hans posed for a nude pictorial.

"If ever we did that," threatened Maritoni, "we’d do it in public, witnessed by the media."

On the other hand, Jackie Aquino, happily married to Mark Vincent Frial Gavino (an interior design consultant from Roxas City, by whom she has a daughter, Andrea), can’t believe that she has been appointed MTRCB vice-chairman by President GMA only last week after serving the board since Nov., 2001.

"Para akong nanalo ng award," said Jackie who last did a movie (Trudis Liit, the remake) five years ago.

Jackie, daughter of Makati Rep. Butz Aquino, got married in 1998 and, in her own words, "got pregnant in 1999," and gave birth in 2000.

Refusing to be confined within the four corners of their home, Jackie works both as PR director of and teacher at the Gymboree Play & Music, handling play and art classes for kids between zero and four years old. "I administer sensory stimulation to my pupils; I also give them gentle massage," said Jackie who trained in the US for the job.

In You and Me Against the World, Jackie plays the sister of Kris who is her real-life cousin.

"Are we close? Oo naman. Kris and I used to bump into each other in rallies. We became closer during the EDSA Dos; but we don’t really get to see each other often. On the set of the movie, medyo nagkaroon kami ng rebonding."

What about her dad? Does she share his views and opinions?

"I love my Dad with all my heart," said Jackie, "but I’m sorry to say that we belong to opposite sides of the political fence. I’m a Coryista all along, all the way."