The Urian 2003 nominees

The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino has finalized its list of nominees for its annual Gawad Urian to be held on May 17 at the AFP Theater. The awards show will be produced for television by APT Productions.

Nominated for Best Picture are Dekada ’70 of Star Cinema, Laman and Mano Po of Regal Films and Munting Tinig of Teamwork Productions and CAP Phil, Inc.

For Best Director, the nominees are Laurice Guillen (American Adobo), Joel Lamangan (Mano Po), Gil Portes (Munti), Rory Quintos (Kailangan Kita), Maryo J. de los Reyes (Laman) and Chito Roño (Dekada).

Competing for Best Actor are Ricky Davao (American Adobo), Rudy Fernandez (Diskarte), Christopher de Leon (Dekada), Jay Manalo (Prosti), Albert Martinez (Laman), Aga Muhlach (Kailangan), Vhong Navarro (Jologs) and Yul Servo (Laman).

Nominated for Best Actress are Claudine Barretto (Kailangan), Dina Bonnevie (American Adobo), Ara Mina (Mano Po), Cherry Pie Picache (American Adobo), Alessandra de Rossi (Munti) and Vilma Santos (Dekada).

Below are the other nominees in the various categories.

Best Supporting Actor – Tirso Cruz III (Mano Po), Johnny Delgado (Kailangan), Jay Manalo (Mano Po), Piolo Pascual (Dekada) and Jeffrey Quizon (Utang ni Tatang).

Best Supporting Actress – Irma Adlawan (Munti), Kris Aquino (Mano Po), Amy Austria (Mano Po), Dexter Doria (Munti), Madeleine Nicolas (Paraisong Parisukat), Elizabeth Oropesa (Laman), Judy Ann Santos (Magkapatid) and Raquel Villavicencio (Prosti).

Best Screenplay – Adolf Alix, Sennedy Que and Gil Portes (Munti), Lualhati Bautista (Dekada), Wali Ching (Laman), Roy Iglesias (Mano Po and Prosti) and Ned Trespeces (Jologs).

Best Cinematography – Shane Clemente (Kailangan), Ely Cruz (Munti), Leslie Garchitorena (Mano Po), Richard Padernal (Agimat), Jon Red (Utang) and Ja Tadena (Prosti).

Best Production Design – Jake de Asis (Paraisong Parisukat), Manny Morfe (Dekada), Nuel Naval (Kailangan), Arthur Nicdao (Munti) and Judy Lou de Pio (Laman).

Best Editing – Renewyn Alano (Laman), Vito Cajili (Jologs), Tala Illenbergher (Mano Po), George Jarlego (Munti) and Francis Vinarao (Diskarte).

Best Music – Archie Castillo (Laman), Tony Cortez (Diskarte), Jesse Lasaten (Kailangan), Jesse Lucas (Jologs) and Joy Marfil (Munti).

Best Sound – Audio Media (Agimat), Noel Bruan and Ari Trofeo (Munti), Dan Ferat (American Adobo), Albert Idioma and Alex Tomboc (Dekada) and Nestor Mutia (Diskarte).

Recipient of the Natatanging Gawad Urian is screenwriter Ricardo Lee.

More on Ruffa and Yilmaz

In my past two columns, I’ve been writing about the happy moments of Yilmaz Bektas and Ruffa Gutierrez after their wedding. It’s just too bad that there has to be kinks in life from time to time. Early this week, for instance, it was reported that Yilmaz and Ruffa, together with Annabelle Rama, had a tiff with the front desk people at the Manila Peninsula Hotel before they checked out a couple of days after the wedding. The misunderstanding concerned the $7,000-plus hotel bills charged to the couple.

Before this issue could get blown way out of proportion, Annabelle Rama called me up to clarify the issue. According to Annabelle, Yilmaz willingly paid the said bills – even if some of those bills were not really theirs.

True, those bills in question were incurred by their guests who flew in from abroad to attend their wedding. However, that didn’t necessarily mean that Yilmaz had to shoulder all their expenses. Even their guests knew that and were not about to take advantage of Yilmaz’s generosity.

From the beginning, Ruffa already gave instructions to the hotel people to ask for the credit cards of the guests (those who are there for their wedding, that is) and made it clear that they (Ruffa and Yilmaz) were only paying for their own suite – plus two rooms occupied by their friends from LA. Ruffa also pointed out from the start that they were shouldering the bills only for the rooms of those guests from LA, but not for their food, telephone calls and other needs.

But on the day they were checking out of the hotel, they discovered that some of the bills of their guests were charged to Yilmaz’s account. These bills were basically for meals consumed by their guests.

While Yilmaz didn’t really mind settling those bills that were not theirs to begin with, what he resented was the fact that the bills kept coming one at a time and he therefore had to go over the bills again and again and had to keep pulling out his credit card. "I already paid a while ago, what else is there to pay?" Yilmaz had to say at one point when the bills didn’t stop coming – so reports Annabelle. "Kasalanan ng hotel ’yun. Bakit hindi nila siningil ’yung mga dapat singilin, tapos kay Yilmaz nila i-cha-charge ’yung bills," says Annabelle.

Annabelle also said that she felt terribly embarrassed when the hotel staff accused one of their guests, singer Vicky Lizzie of "escaping" from the hotel without settling her bills. That really upset Yilmaz because he didn’t like Ruffa to be keeping friends who would be pulling that kind of stunt. But as it turned out, Vicki Lizzie had not escaped. When the hotel people checked, in fact, Ms. Lizzie was in her room, asleep, and had no plans of checking out yet and certainly had no intention of escaping without paying for her bills. For the record, Lizzie had to stay behind because she still had a commitment to appear as guest in German Moreno’s Master Showman.

While Yilmaz is a generous person, the last thing Annabelle wants is for him to have this impression that Ruffa’s family and friends are taking advantage of him "Kahit mayaman siya, hindi naman siguro tama ’yung pagsamantalahan siya," says Annabelle in defense of her son-in-law. "At ang ikinainis niya ay hindi dahil malaki ang binayaran, kundi dahil hindi pa pinagsabay-sabay ibinigay sa kanya ’yung mga bills at isa-isang inihahabol."

Well, we are already familiar with how Annabelle ferociously protects her family members. With the way she protects Yilmaz now, it is very obvious that she has already welcomed him in her heart as the newest family member. Never mind if she was against this marriage in the beginning because she felt that Ruffa was "too young" to get married at 28. That incident at the Pen may have been unpleasant for Yilmaz, Ruffa and Annabelle, but the one good thing that came out of this is that Annabelle has proven what a caring mother-in-law she is to Yilmaz and that she would be there to protect him if and when the need arises.