My forecast on the coming awards season

The awards season is already upon us and the various award-giving bodies are already preparing to honor last year’s achievements in film. Thanks to independently-produced movies — or indies as film buffs call them — the list of pictures up for competition is very impressive (very much like last year and even the year before).

Below is my forecast of the awards scenario in the coming months:

• Brillante Mendoza will face a very tough contest, but will basically be up against himself (for Kinatay and Lola) — just like in recent years. But let’s not discount yet the possibility of another director upsetting a three-in-a-row win for him.

• There will be no grand-slam victory for anybody — not even in the Best Actress category, which started when Vilma Santos won for Relasyon in 1982 and scored several more rounds after that.

• Among the front-runners for Best Actress are two veteran performers: the two leads in Lola, Rustica Carpio and Anita Linda. The name of Anita Linda, of course, still rings a bell to today’s generation because she keeps appearing in a lot of indie projects, in title roles at that (like last year’s Adela). Discovered during the war years, she made film history by winning in the first official acting race in Philippine movies — when she was crowned Best Actress (for Sisa) in the now-defunct Maria Clara Awards, which even preceded the FAMAS. Rustica, a former dean in one of the colleges of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), rarely appeared on screen, but will always be remembered for her performance in Ishmael Bernal’s Nunal sa Tubig.

• A much younger actress, Janice de Belen, may just sweep the rug from under the two veteran performers because of the excellent acting job she delivered in Last Viewing.

• Eugene Domingo is already assured of a Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy Role trophy from the Golden Screen Awards given annually by the Entertainment Press Society (Enpress), which bolted years ago from the original Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) that hands out the annual Star Awards. The Golden Screen is the only local award-giving body (obviously patterned after the Golden Globe) that has categories for lead comedy actor/actress to separate them from those who do dramas. I am not a member of this organization, but my bet is that they will give that to Eugene for playing twins in Kimmy/Dora. If only for the energy she exhibited in this film, she is already a winner.

• The Best Comedy Film of the Year award will also go to Kimmy/Dora in the Golden Screen, but its voting members should also consider Last Supper No. 3, a film directed by Veronica Velasco, which makes a farce out of the bureaucracy system in government offices in the Philippines. Unlike the laugh-out-loud Kimmy/Dora, Last Supper No. 3’s humor is subtler.

• Sen. Jinggoy Estrada may figure and even dominate some awards bodies, but maybe he won’t be able to conquer all since the race in all categories is really tough. In my book, however, he gave one of the best performances of the year as a fearless broadcaster/commentator in Bente.

• Allen Dizon, who has matured as a performer, may also have a repeat of his Best Actor win in at least one award-giving body for Dukot where he plays a political activist tortured for his beliefs.

• His leading lady in the film, Iza Calzado (who already has one Urian for Sigaw, which she redid in the Hollywood version Echo), will also garner acting nominations, but I doubt if she can get past the more veteran performers. She’s still young anyway and will surely win more acting trophies in the future.

• Ariel Ureta will finally win an acting recognition (at least a nomination) for playing the twins’ father in Kimmy/Dora. The biggest star on TV for about two to three years toward the mid-‘70s, he did two blockbuster hits in 1973: Zoom, Zoom Superman and Si Popeye Atbp. In this new millennium, he was also impressive playing Ryan Agoncillo’s level-headed father in the hit Judy Ann Santos’ movies, Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo and its sequel, Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo.

• Miriam Quiambao will also be recognized finally for her acting skills in Kimmy/Dora. Although an acting nomination is the farthest she’ll probably get, that is good enough and hopefully she turns into another Gloria Diaz, who is recognized not only for being Miss Universe, but also as an accomplished actress.

• The glamour of awards presentations will not return this year — or even the next. Some may be produced by TV5, but these will not bring in good business because the glory days of local awards nights are over. Yes, it was the influx of indie movies that killed the glamour of the red carpet.

The local critics’ group, the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP), will be criticized for awarding and nominating movies that no one else saw. No, we’re not trying to be different from the rest. The films we are considering were released last year and are eligible for competition. It’s not our fault that nobody watches these indies. Why clobber us for doing our assignment (of viewing films) and being thorough? Our only aim is to honor last year’s best outputs in film.