Highlights, sidelights at the 49th MMFF’s Gabi ng Parangal
Piolo Pascual, nominated as Best Actor for Derick Cabrido’s horror drama, Mallari, approached his big screen “parents,” Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon, who were seated together at the New Frontier Theater of the 49th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).
Piolo starred with the veteran actors who played his parents more than two decades ago, when they did the multi-awarded and critically acclaimed Dekada ’70 (2002), directed by Chito Roño.
In Dekada ’70, Piolo won Best Supporting Actor honors not just in the MMFF, but also in the Gawad Urian, FAP (Film Academy of the Philippines), PMPC (Philippine Movie Press Club) Star Awards and other award-giving bodies.
Similarly, Megastar Sharon Cuneta went to the area where Vilma and Boyet were seated and they kissed and hugged during a commercial break of the awards’ night.
Sharon and Vilma have yet to work together for the big screen, but Boyet has been Sharon’s perennial leading man in many romantic films in the past.
Although both Vilma and Sharon were nominated as Best Actress – the former for When I Met You in Tokyo and the latter for Family of Two – it was Vilma who bagged the trophy.
Vilma, however, shared her award with her fellow nominees, including Sharon, Marian Rivera (Rewind), Eugene Domingo and Pokwang (Becky and Badette). Vilma also profusely thanked her leading man, Boyet, who was also a co-director of When I Met You in Tokyo, with Conrado Peru and Rommel Pinesa.
After Vilma gave her lengthy acceptance speech, Sharon, who was the last nominee to arrive that night, left the New Frontier Theater with hubby Kiko Pangilinan. She didn’t stay on to finish the awards’ night.
Sharon’s Family of Two didn’t land in the Best Picture runners-up and got only one award for the night, Best Supporting Actress for Miles Ocampo.
The fantasy-adventure, Firefly, gave an upset to the true-to-life period drama, GomBurZa, which copped the most number of trophies – seven – in the Gabi ng Parangal awards night Wednesday at the New Frontier Theater.
While it looked like GomBurZa was an early shoo-in for Best Picture, the film only landed second Best Picture honors. Its director, Pepe Diokno, won in his category. He was so honored to receive his award from veteran and award-winning megmen, Chito Roño and Jose Javier Reyes.
Piolo, who was a strong bet for Best Actor but was edged out by Cedrick Juan for GomBurZa, stayed on to accept the third Best Picture win for Mallari with the rest of the cast of the period drama, director Derick Cabrido and producer Brian Dy of Mentorque Productions.
As for the newbie performer Cedrick, he played the historical character Padre Jose Burgos in the period drama.
“I am Cedrick Juan,” he told the crowd when he went up onstage to accept his acting trophy, his first lead role, although not his acting debut.
In a brief interview with The STAR after the awards night concluded, Cedrick excitedly said, “I feel like I’m flying tonight. To be nominated alongside longtime actors is such a feat.”
The award is a validation for Cedrick’s artistry. He bested fellow Best Actor nominees like Christopher (When I Met You in Tokyo), Piolo (Mallari), Derek Ramsay (Kampon) and Alden Richards (Family of Two), who were more veterans than him.
“Among the five of us, I am the only one who is not really known by most of the people,” Cedrick said. “So, it’s really overwhelming. I’m really so thankful because it’s really a validation of my artistry and craft.”
His Padre Burgos in GomBurZa is larger than life. “At the start, I didn’t believe in myself that I could do such a role (as Padre Burgos),” Cedrick admitted. “But I really worked for it. It’s really a collaborative and an ensemble work.”
“After this, I know I’ll be more confident doing roles that I couldn’t tackle. But still, I know the core value of being an ensemble work is still there. The work of an artist is to influence people and voice out what he needs to do,” he added.
The fantasy-adventure, Firefly, megged by Zig Dulay, was proclaimed Best Picture and bookended the awards night with its trophies. Earlier in the evening, Firefly child actor Euwenn Mikaell bagged the Best Child Performer, the first acting trophy given in the night.
Euwenn bested Jordan Lim of Mae Czarina Cruz’s Rewind and Erin Espiritu of King Palisoc’s Kampon.
Firefly also proudly won the Best Screenplay award for Angeli Atienza.
Meanwhile, direk Chito chaired the 11-member Board of Jurors in this year’s MMFF Awards. Actress Lorna Tolentino was the vice chairman.
Lorna admitted it was touchy and challenging for the jurors to narrow down the nominees and choose the winners. “The 10 films were a good batch,” she commented. “We could see that people went to the cinemas again and watched the films.”
Jury members included director Jose Javier Reyes, MMDA Deputy chairman Undersecretary Frisco San Juan Jr., veteran movie columnist Gerry Olea, Maria Lualhati Dorotan-Tiuseco, Mike Sandejas, RS Francisco, Jaime Ang, Lee Briones Meily, and filmmaker Tara Illenberger.
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