SINEgugma Film Festival returns after five years Januar Junior Aguja

CEBU, Philippines — After a five-year hiatus, the SINEgugma Film Festival returned for its fifth edition with an awarding ceremony held Saturday, March 18, and a free public screening the following day at The Terraces of Ayala Center Cebu.

The seven entries consisted of short advocacy films that aim to shed light on current issues plaguing the Cebuano community. In the line-up were “Haring Gangis”, “Singko Mil”, “Sakit sa Paglasa”, “Last Suffer”, “Add to Cart”, “Pakyas”, and “Duyan sa Kinabuhi.”

“Singko Mil” and “Haring Gangis” were the most-awarded entries, winning Best Film in the Social Issues and Christian Faith categories, respectively.

Crio Kuzuma was named Best Director for “Singko Mil”, which was also chosen Best Cinematography. Bernardo Montilla and Ma. Fe Miñoza received awards for Best Screenplay and Best Production Design, respectively, for “Haring Gangis.”

Miñoza told The FREEMAN he was particularly proud that “Haring Gangis” tackled unconditional faith. “The main character suffered for many years, yet she didn’t give up on her faith and just gave everything to God without questioning or resorting to any revenge,” she said.

Arnel Pahang nabbed Best Actor for his performance in “Duyan sa Kinabuhi”, while The FREEMAN Opinion columnist Ligaya Rabago was Best Actress for “Singko Mil.”

“It’s overwhelming because it’s my first time to win a Best Actor award. I started my foray into film in 2015 with a feature film under the late director Al Evangelio entitled U.S.T. (Ubos sa Tulay) for the 2015 Sinulog Film Festival where I was nominated for Best Supporting Actor,” said Pahang.

Rabago is no stranger to acting awards, yet still stresses the importance of expecting the unexpected. “It’s the same feeling when I won all those other competitions…we never know who will win Best Actress,” she said.

Other awardees were “Last Suffer” for Best Poster and “Sakit sa Paglasa” for Netizens Choice as its trailer garnered the most engagement with 1,600 reactions, 260 comments, and 2,500 shares on Facebook.

The Gloria Sevilla Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Teresa Diez for her contributions to Cebuano cinema. Diez was visibly emotional when she delivered a brief but meaningful acceptance speech.

With SINEgugma’s comeback, Rabago said “it should be a priority for films to produce stories with themes of social issues because we lack them currently. We have to appreciate how these social issues will be mounted into a film,” she said.

“From there, let people think and do something about what we can do in this reality. How can we help? That’s how important it is to produce films that tackle social issues.”