Like in 2017 when she won Best Actress in the 7th Queens World Film Festival (QWFF) for Area, Ai-Ai delas Alas was absent at the 39th Fantasporto International Film Festival (FPIFF) awards night in Portugal over the weekend when she won Best Actress for School Service.
“I’m lucky when I don’t attend the awards night,” Ai-Ai told Funfare, recalling that she was present at the Kazakhstan filmfest but she lost (also for Area). “When I won in 2017, a text message about my win roused me from sleep. Ganoon din last Sunday when somebody texted me the good news.”
On both occasions, it was Louie Ignacio, director of both movies (produced by Baby Go’s BG Productions), who received the awards for Ai-Ai who has been proven “winnable” abroad when she does drama. In Area (for which she won two other awards at the Los Angeles and ASEAN filmfests), she plays an aging prostitute who is running a brothel and in School Service, as a wheelchair-bound beggar who is a member of a child-trafficking syndicate.
“Actually, I forgot all about Portugal because my mind was on Queens where I will hand over the Best Actress trophy to the next winner. During my time, it was Cherie (Gil), that year’s winner, who handed me the trophy,” adding, “I would have wanted to go to Portugal to visit the Our Lady of Fatima Shrine.” (Ai-Ai is a Marian devotee.)
So far, Ai-Ai has been nominated more than a dozen times and won Best Actress 14 times for comedic performances mostly in her iconic Tanging Ina character.
Ai-Ai delas Alas in School Service in which she plays a wheelchair-bound beggar who is a member of a child-trafficking syndicate.
The recent award is a new feather on Ai-Ai’s already well-decorated cap, so timely for this year when she marks her 30th year in showbiz. She’s turning 55 in November yet but she will celebrate the milestone five months in advance (in June) with a big concert as a farewell gesture for Archbishop Antonio Tobias who is retiring this year. All the earnings will be spent for the completion of the Kristong Hari Church which is one of Ai-Ai’s charity projects.
By next year, Ai-Ai and husband Gerald Sibayan (who will be a licensed pilot in 2020 when he graduates from a flying school in Subic, Zambales) will focus on (finally!) having their first child. Unlike former DILG Secretary/Senatoriable Mar Roxas and his wife Korina Sanchez who just had twins through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Ai-Ai is determined to have it the natural way.
“Para feel na feel ko,” she said. “This early, I am already preparing my body for it. I work out in the gym regularly to strengthen my back. I’m working harder now because I want to save because if ever I get pregnant, I will take a one-year leave from showbiz.”
Already, the couple has chosen two names: Sandrine Grain if a girl and Sargent Gail if a boy. They don’t expect twins. The names have to start with the letter “S” because, according to Ai-Ai, “may ‘S’ ang names ng mga anak ko…Sancho, Sophia and Shawn Nicolo. Gerald wants to have ‘G’ in the names.”
Meanwhile, aside from the GMA show Sunday PINASaya, Ai-Ai is kept busy by movie assignments — one for Regal, one for GMA Films (titled Kiko & Lala, with Super Tekla), one to be directed by Joven Tan, one for Viva (Sons of Nanay Sabel, principal photography completed) and another one titled Feellinneals (with Pops Fernandez).
First transgender to win award and to endorse beauty products
Transgender actress Iya Mina when she won Best Actress (for Mamu; And a Mother Too) in the 2018 Cinema One Originals Awards.
There was a little confusion how to categorize her when Iya Mina was nominated by yet another school giving awards, never mind if she was already named Best Actress in the 2018 Cinema One Originals Awards for her performance in Mamu; And a Mother Too.
You see, Iya is the very first transgender to be so honored for her movie debut as a transgender sex worker in her late 40s whose only aspiration is to have breast implants for her profession unexpectedly assumes the role of a mother to her orphaned niece, a transgender youth who is only beginning to discover her own sexuality.
“It doesn’t really matter how they categorize me,” said Iya (who looks every inch and every curve a woman). “What’s important is the recognition of me as a member of the LGBTQ community.”
Iya talked to The STAR when she and Arron Villaflor were launched as endorsers of Prestige International (headed by Manny Carancho) which sells beauty products (soap, lotion, etc.) online. They are perfect together since they also co-star in Mamu.
With Mamu leading man Arron Villaflor as co-endorser of Prestige International which sells beauty products online.
“It’s easy to like Iya because she’s very professional and very focused on her work,” said Arron who, at 29, is shedding his goody-goody image in his next movie (untitled, by Blacksheep Films) with Jodi Sta. Maria as co-star. “I am not homophobic,” explained Arron. “It’s immaterial what one’s gender is as long as he or she is not hurting anybody.”
A Business Administration undergraduate from a school in Valenzuela City, Iya impressed director Rod Singh when he saw her at a comedy bar (Punchline).
“Aside from doing stand-up comedy,” Iya admitted, “I didn’t have any acting experience. When I did Mamu, all I needed was to ‘feel’ the role because it’s close to what I really am.”
Iya is now shooting a digital film titled 30 Reasons Why Not for iWant.
(E-mail reactions at rickylophilstar@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)