MANILA, Philippines - Allen Dizon, who played Randy, a casket factory worker in Magkakabaung (The Coffin Maker) by Jason Paul Laxamana, won the Best Actor Award in the 3rd Silk Road Film Festival in Dublin, Ireland, last Sunday evening, March 22.
Allen personally accepted the award in a gala ceremony held in The Sugar Club. He bested Sofi Jikan (Men Who Save The World), Iwase Ryo (Midsummers Fantasia), Mohammad Javad Ezzati (Angels Descend Together) and Gerard Depardieu (The Voice of Steppe).
This is Allen’s third international Best Actor award for the same film after the 3rd Hanoi (Vietnam) and 9th Harlem (New York) international film festivals last year. He also won Best Actor awards in local award-giving bodies: The 40th MMFF New Wave Category, 13th Gawad Tanglaw and 17th Gawad PASADO (Pampelikulang Samahang ng mga Dalubguro).
Locally, Allen also won Best Actor for Lawrence Fajardo’s Imbisibol for his role as an ageing macho dancer in Japan, in the 1st Sinag Maynila Film Festival held in SM Aura.
Co-produced by Ferdinand Lapuz, Dennis Evangelista, Romeo Lindain and Romnick Sarmenta for ATD Entertainment Productions, Magkakabaung (which is about a neglectful father (Dizon) who accidentally caused his eight-year-old daughter’s death by administering the wrong medication) won the Best Film Award. It beat out Factory Girl (by Mohamed Khan, Egypt), Men Who Save the World (by Liew Seng Tat, France, Germany, Malaysia and Netherlands), Midsummers Fantasia (by Jang Kunjae, South Korea and Japan), We Have a Guest (by Mohammad Mehdi Asgarpour, Iran) and Ekstra (A Bit Player by Jeff Jeturian, Philippines. Vilma Santos was nominated for Best Actress). Allen received the Best Film Award on behalf of director Laxamana who’s in the US attending the 39th Cleveland International Film Festival where the said film is being exhibited. Magkakabaung won the NETPAC Best Asian Film Award in the 3rd Hanoi IFF in December last year.