Big Night scores big at MMFF 2021 awards night

It was indeed a “big night” for dark comedy film Big Nightbagging eight awards at this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival’s (MMFF) Gabi ng Parangal held Monday night at SM Aura in Taguig City.

The list of awards for Big Night includes: Christian Bables as Best Actor; Jun Robles Lana as Best Director and Best Screenplay; John Arcilla as Best Supporting Actor; Carlo Mendoza for Best Cinematography; and Teresa Barrozo for Best Musical Score. It also won the Best Picture and Gender Sensitivity Award.

Big Night tells the story of a gay beautician, Dharna (played by Bables), who discovered that his name is on a drug watchlist. Fearing for his life, he asked the help of his community members to clear his name.

The Charo Santos-Concio and Daniel Padilla starrer Kun Maupay Man It Panahon (Waray for Whether the Weather is Fine) also won several awards, including Best Actress for Santos-Concio; newbie Rans Rifol as Best Supporting Actress; Second Best Picture; Best Visual Effects; Whammy Alcazaren as Best Production Design; Gatpuno Antonio Villegas Cultural Award; and Special Jury Prize for Padilla.

Action-packed A Hard Day, starring Dingdong Dantes, was named Third Best Picture. It also won Best Sound for Albert Michael Idioma; Best Editing for Law Fajardo; and the FPJ Award.

On the other hand, Best Original Theme Song was awarded to Louie Ignacio for Umulan Man o Umaraw from Huling Ulan sa Tag-Araw; Best Short Film Content Creator for Pio Balbuena’s Kandado; Best Float for Huwag Kang Lalabas; Marichu Vera Perez Memorial Award for Rosa Rosal; Natatanging Gawad MMFF for the late Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chief Danilo Lim and late National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera.

Despite the reported low turnout of moviegoers for MMFF entries, MMFF spokesperson Noel Ferrer said, quoting cinema operators, the Dec. 25 opening was “the highest-grossing day since cinemas have re-opened amid the pandemic and not even the big Hollywod films, like Eternals, are able to approximate the gross that MMFF 2021 has generated so far.”

“In fact, the first day gross alone this year covered one-third of the total MMFF Online gross (in its entire run) last year. With more people going to the cinemas by the day, in the first three to four days, we can surpass the total gross last year. Plus, there is no major piracy-related problems now,” he added in his Facebook post.

The fact that the MMFF was pushed through despite the pandemic could be considered a huge achievement in show business and this was the first step to bring back the confidence of the people and producers in the entertainment industry that halted its operations for almost two years due to the pandemic, he explained.

Ferrer further urged everyone to show love and continue supporting Filipino films.

Other entries at the 47th edition of the annual MMFF, organized by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), are Love at First Stream, Nelia and The Exorsis.