Jake, Liza top acting bets at Manhattan Int’l Filmfest

THIS JUST IN: The awards night for the 2014 International Film Festival Manhattan (IFFM) will be held Thursday night (Oct. 23) at the Philippine Consulate. Competing in the event are films from the US and the Philippines and the good news is that Jake Cuenca and Liza Diño are among the nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress.

Liza already won Best Actress at IFFM in 2011 for Compound. This time, she’s nominated for In Nomine Matris (directed by Wil Fredo, co-starring Biboy Ramirez) in which she plays a young dance protégé whose quest for the big break turns her world upside-down.

Now taking up a month-long course in acting (in New York), Jake is nominated for Mulat (directed by Diane Ventura, also starring Loren Burgos and Ryan Eigenmann) in which he plays a man who falls for a woman with a “mental affliction.”

Liza and Jake are expected to attend the event in which Domingo Hornilla Jr. will be honored for his contribution to the Film Festival Community as the past comptroller of the Lincoln Center Film Society/NY Film Festival and as producer of Filipino indies (including American Adobo).

According to Funfare’s New York correspondent Felix Manuel, IFFM director/programmer is inviting Filipinos based in the East Coast to watch the films on exhibition until Oct. 26 (check out schedule on the IFFM website www.IFFMNewYork.com).

Evans looks forward to more Dracula films

Even if he plays history’s most famous and at the same time well-loved monster (after all, why were so many movies and TV shows made about him?) in Dracula Untold, Luke Evans (born with fangs that have to be made longer with fake ones) told journalists during the movie’s junket in London that, as a kid, he never watched any Dracula movies.

“My parents never let me watch anything scary or supernatural, or anything with ghosts or vampires or demons,” Evans confessed. “None of that stuff existed in my household. I had a very pleasant and happy childhood. The only Dracula I remember was the one of Sesame Street.”

But he added that he enjoyed playing Dracula so much that he would love to do more of it, a wish that might come true because Dracula Untold is doing good at the US box office.

Still showing nationwide in the Philippines, distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures, Dracula Untold is not your typical Dracula movie that scares you out of your wits and leaves you with nightmares. It tells the story from the very beginning, set in 1462, and it makes our understanding of the beloved blood-sucker clearer.

The movie, megged by Gary Shore on his feature-film directorial debut, is lit up by the inclusion of Canadian actress Sarah Gadon as Mirena, the light and moral compass of Prince Vlad (played by Evans) who, as you will see in the movie, metamorphosed into Dracula.

“There is something very old Hollywood about Sarah,” said Shore, recalling how Sarah nailed the role. “There’s something classical about her. She complemented the balance I wanted to get between the dark and the brooding, the light and the purity.”

Said Sarah (who was in A Dangerous Mind and The Amazing Spider-Man 2), “Even though this film as a good deal of history, the romance between Mirena and Vlad feels very contemporary. Here’s a warrior, a prince, a fighter and a leader going out and risking his life for his people and his family, and that makes sense to a contemporary family. That made us feel as if the story was real and weighted in reality.”

When were they at their most beautiful?

At the recent presscon for Skylight Films/Quantum Films’ Beauty in a Bottle (directed by Antoinette Jadaone, opening nationwide on Oct. 29), the female cast was asked, “When were you at your most beautiful in your life?”

•Empress Schuck: The day I had my debut kasi that day was special and, of course, nakaayos ako…hair, make-up and gown.

•Nanette Inventor: The day I came to know the Lord I felt I was beautiful inside and out. In fact, I feel beautiful thinking about Him every day.

•Carmi Martin: Twice. First, when I was doing Dick & Carmi (with Roderick Paulate as co-host). Second, when I came to know the Lord as my personal savior.

•Angeline Quinto: Noong una akong nagka-billboard (Belo) sa EDSA. Wow, maski out of the way, dumadaan talaga ako doon para makita ko lang ang sarili ko. For example, we were going to Lawton, I would insist na sa EDSA kami dumaan so that I could see my billboard, hahahaha!!!

•Assunta de Rossi: When I was 18 or 19, virgin pa ako noon.

•Angelica Panganiban: When I met John Lloyd Cruz. It happened in Vietnam. Feeling ko, ang kapal-kapal ng buhok ko at ang puti-puti ng ngipin ko.”

— Reported by CARLO OROSA

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