TVJ gets FAMAS Lifetime Achievement Award

Congratulations to all the winners at the 63rd FAMAS Awards held Sunday at the Newport Entertainment Theater of the Resorts World Hotel and Casino.

“Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo” won the Best Picture award as well as the Best Director trophy for Enzo Williams. It was a sweet victory for the newbie filmmaker who also won the Best Director award at the PMPC Star Awards, but lost in the same category at last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival.

“Bonifacio” also won awards for Best Cinematography for Carlo Mendoza, Best Production Design for Roy Lachica and Joel Bilbao and Best Original Theme Song for “Hindi Pa Tapos.”

Winning top acting honors were Toni Gonzaga as Best Actress for “Starting Over Again” and Allen Dizon for “Magkakabaung.”

This is Toni’s first acting award from FAMAS while Allen won his eighth acting trophy for Jason Paul Laxamana’s indie film “Magkakabaung,” which also won for him several international acting awards.

Getting the nod for Best Supporting Actress is Sylvia Sanchez for “The Trial,” while Gabby Eigenmann was voted Best Supporting Actor for the indie movie “Asintado.”

Nabbing the award for Best Child Performer was Miggs Cuaderno, also for “Asintado.”

The awards for Best Story went to Ricardo Lee, Enrico Santos and Kriz Gazmen for “The Trial.” They also bagged the award for Best Screenplay.

Other winners were Carlos Manantad (Best Editing for “Feng Shui”), Addiss Tabong (Best Sound for “Feng Shui”), Cesar Francis Concio (Best Musical Score for “She’s Dating the Gangster”), and Erick Torrente (Best Special Effects for “Muslim Magnum 357”).

Special awards were given to the Iconic Movie Queens namely Gloria Romero, Susan Roces, Nora Aunor, Maricel Soriano, Dawn Zulueta and Sarah Geronimo.

Recipients of the German Moreno Youth Achievement Awards were Bianca Umali, Diego Loyzaga, Jasmine Curtis Smith, Kiko Estrada, Kim Rodriguez, Mark Neumann, Miguel Tanfelix, Nadine Lustre, Robi Domingo and Sofia Andres.

Coco Martin received the Fernando Poe, Jr. Memorial Award while the popular trio of Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by FAMAS.

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We wanted to do an interview with Vice Ganda, hoping to make him comment on the heated rivalry between “It’s Showtime” and “Eat Bulaga.” We tried to set an appointment thru a friend and told him what the topic would be. But Vice is so preoccupied with the preparations for the sixth anniversary of “It’s Showtime,” which is happening tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum. And so we were told that unfortunately, our request for an interview cannot be granted, even if the request was made some two weeks ago.

Since Vice Ganda has the strongest following among the stars of their noontime show (this is not to say his co-hosts are reduced to being non-entities), naturally, people would be curious what he has to say with how “Eat Bulaga” has been making “It’s Showtime” eat dust in the ratings race. Since Eat Bulaga’s Kalye Serye featuring Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza or AlDub sparked interest among viewers, things were never the same again as far as competition in the ratings of the rival noontime shows.

But since our request for an interview was respectfully turned down, we can’t get Vice Ganda’s reaction on the issue. But we are not losing hope that Vice Ganda will eventually accede to our request at his most convenient time.

The sixth anniversary show of “It’s Showtime” will be supported by the biggest and brightest stars of the Kapamilya network. Among the confirmed guests are ABS-CBN’s popular love teams led by Nadine Lustre and James Reid.

Aside from its anniversary show, “It’s Showtime” will also have a caravan in Cebu and Davao.

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Billy Crawford said he would not rather say much regarding the ongoing comparison between Eat Bulaga’s “AlDub” segment and It’s Showtime’s “Pastillas Girl.”

This was his reaction when interviewed by entertainment writers at the launch of  his new ABS-CBN show “Celebrity Playtime” which premieres tomorrow on ABS-CBN.

He said it is not right for him to speak about the rivalry between the networks and the competing shows, most especially for “It’s Showtime,” since he alone cannot speak for the program because it also involves his other co-hosts.

“We are just here to enjoy what we do. We are just enjoying ourselves every day in making people happy,” said Billy, who also hosts “Your Face Sounds Familiar,” also aired every Saturday and Sunday on Channel 2.

With his new show “Celebrity Playtime,” Billy will now be seen three times a week. The newest talk-comedy-game show will pit celebrities against each other in exciting and amusing games. It will feature celebrity players competing in house party games and winning prizes all in the spirit of fun.

Billy says the program urges viewers to bond with their friends and families.

“These days, most of us rely on smartphones and social media for interaction. We want to encourage the viewers to spend time, connect and have fun with each other the best way – face-to-face,” he said.

Every week, two teams of celebrity players will play three house party games about popular culture. After the third game, the team that earns the most number of points wins and advances to the bonus round where then can earn additional prizes.

The fun does not stop there though, as these two teams will play in a road-to-three series. The first team to win in three weeks will be declared defending champion and will be playing against another “celebri-team.”

Featured in the program’s first laughter-field games are Melai Cantiveros, Nyoy Volante, Edgar Allan Guzman and Karla Estrada of “Your Face Sounds Familiar” first season and Long Mejia, Dennis Padilla, Eric Nicolas and Epy Quizon, some of the lucky stars of “Kapamilya Deal or No Deal.”