It's a tie for Best Actor while an 18-year-old bagged the Best Actress award in the 2008 Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival held earlier today, November 28. The star-studded awarding ceremony took place at the Dolphy Theater (formerly Studio 1) of ABS-CBN.
Mark Gil of the Cinema One entry Alon and Ronnie Lazaro of the Ilonggo
film Yanggaw were both cited for their outstanding acting skills. Mark was
unable to attend but Ronnie was present to receive the C-shaped trophy awarded to the winners.
"Mr. Ronald Arguelles [Cinema One channel head], maraming salamat sa paglalagay mo ng enerhiya sa industriya natin," said Ronnie in his acceptance speech.
Charee Pineda, who was previously seen in the Star Cinema film A Love Story
and the Cinemanila 2008 entry Sisa, beat more senior stars when she
bagged the Best Actress Award for the film Alon. In this romance drama,
she plays a young girl who goes on vacation in a seaside village. She meets a
much-older man (played by Mark Gil) who becomes attracted to her even though he
still has to take care of his dying wife (Eula Valdes).
The film Yanggaw, which means "infected" in Ilonggo, was the big winner during the fourth edition of Cinema One Originals. It took home the lion's share of 14 awards given out today.
Tetchie Agbayani was chosen Best Supporting Actress while Joel Torre was named Best Supporting Actor. Bacolod native Richard Somes earned the award for Best Director and he dedicated his award to Ilonggos when he went up the stage to be recognized. Best Sound went to this horror film—awarded to Joey Santos and Eduardo Velasquez—while Best Editing went to Borgy Torre.
During a short break, PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) was able to talk to
Tetchie regarding her triumph as Best Supporting Actress. She recalls that she
received her last acting award way back in 1993 when she appeared in Sakay.
According to Tetchie, her first acting award came from the Metro Manila Film
Fest entry Okay Ka Fairy Ko.
During her speech, she told the stars and staff members of Yanggaw, "Thank you for your patience when I couldn't get my lines [which were all in Ilonggo]."
As the recipient of the Audience Choice Award, the filmmaker of Yanggaw also gets to take home the P100,000 cash prize.
Even though Yanggaw received six awards this afternoon, the Best Picture
Award went to Sherad Anthony Sanchez for the film Imburnal. Aside from
taking home a trophy, he will also get the cash prize of P200,000.
This drama is about two boys living in the slums of Matina Aplaya in Davao. Sherad took on two roles this year since he also wrote the screenplay of this coming-of-age film, which earned the Best Screenplay Award. Imburnal also earned the Best Cinematography award for J. Geolamen, Jose Fiola and John Torres.
This year's jury chose the period film Kolorete as the recipient of the
Special Jury Prize for its "fresh and imaginative take on history and for its
beautiful cinematography..."
Written by Sherad and directed by Ruelo Lozendo, Kolorete tackles the struggle
of people in a small town during the Spanish occupation. The black-and-white
film also bagged the distinction of having the Best Production Design among the
seven entries this year.
The Best Musical Score went to Leujim Martinez for Alon, directed by Ron
Bryant, and shot on location in Zambales.
Other entries for the fourth edition of Cinema One Originals include Senedy
Que's Dose, Jon Red's MotorCYCLE, and Roman Olivarez's UPCAT.
Toni Gonzaga opened the event when she sang the theme song of Cinema One titled
"Ang Buhay Natin, Parang Sine." She kept her cool even
when she encountered technical difficulties before she could sing her song. She
even joked, "Ang buhay talaga, parang sine kaya mag-take two
tayo!"
Sam Milby also graced the event to sing "Mahal Pa Rin" as an
intermission number while he strummed his guitar. The presence of the matinee
idol enlivened the crowd, which was composed mostly of students.
Eugene Domingo, who was part of this year's jury, brought the house down with her impromptu jokes. When she presented the Best Screenplay Award and Special Jury Prize along with Lance Raymundo, she told the crowd, "Hurado na ako! Palakpakan! Nag-enjoy ako sa ibinigay ninyong trabaho."
This year marks the first time that Cinema One went on school tours to hold question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers, the stars, and students about filmmaking.
Cinema One channel head Ronald Arguelles believes that bringing the films closer to the students will be beneficial to indie filmmakers in the long run. "This year's successful campus tour of the Cinema One Originals only shows that digital films are making a mark in academe. It has also tapped the younger generation of moviegoers that Cinema One has always been wanting to capture."
The hosts of the awarding ceremony were Bianca Gonzales and reporter Atom
Araullo.
This year's entries will be screened at IndieSine, Robinsons Galleria, from December 3 to 10.