MANILA, Philippines — A 90-minute psychological drama with only two male characters seen in 99 percent of the story romped off with most of the major awards in the first summer Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) held on Tuesday night.
Director Jun Lana’s About Us But Not About Us was adjudged Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Romnick Sarmenta.
A tearful and emotional Romnick went up onstage to receive his award — his first Best Actor trophy in his 35-year career. He dedicated the award to his mom and children.
“After I read the script of About Us But Not About Us, I got excited right away with the premise and the promise of the story,” Romnick told the audience at the New Frontier Theater where the awards ceremony took place.
About Us But Not About Us also clinched the Best Production Design for Maolen Fadul, Best Editing for Lawrence Ang, Best Cinematography for Neil Daza, Best Musical Score for Teresa Barrozo, Best Sound for Arman de Guzman and Best Screenplay for Jun.
Gladys Reyes took home the Best Actress trophy for director Brillante Mendoza’s Apag, bankrolled by Centerstage Production.
“Since (Jun Lana’s) Barber’s Tales, I haven’t done a full-length role for 10 years,” Gladys granted. “But it’s worth it. I didn’t expect this.”
She dedicated her award to her parents who are the real Kapampangans, the dialect used by the characters in Apag.
Meanwhile, two stars from Quantum Films’ comedy, Here Comes the Groom, Keempee de Leon and KaladKaren (a.k.a. Jervi Li) bagged the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.
TV host KaladKaren, who became popular for impersonating broadcast journalist Karen Davila, made history as the first transgender woman to be nominated and win the award.
“This (award) is not just a recognition of my job, but my whole being as a transgender woman,” KaladKaren said as she accepted her award in tears. “I want to share this to all transgender people, drag artists and the LGBTQIA+ community. We are more than enough.”
She dedicated her award to her role models — Karen Davila and Vice Ganda — as well as to her partner of 11 years, Luke Wrightson.
Paralaya, an original piece by erstwhile choreographer-turned-songwriter Andy Alviz, bagged the Best Original Theme Song for director Brillante’s Apag.
Best Float, first given in 1992 to Okay Ka, Fairy Ko, went to Studio Three Sixty’s romantic story, Love You Long Time, starring Carlo Aquino and Eisel Serrano.
Special Jury Prizes were awarded to Here Comes the Groom, received by its director Chris Martinez, and Elijah Canlas of About Us But Not About Us.
Third Best Picture Went to Here Comes the Groom. Second Best Picture was Love You Long Time and Best Picture winner was About Us But Not About Us.
Lawyer Romando “Don” Artes, chairman of the MMDA (Manila Metropolitan Development Authority), assured they will not get tired of mounting the summer MMFF. “Until it becomes a tradition and part of the summer of Filipinos,” he said.
Artes also informed there is a plan to bring all eight entries to the US, where a summer film festival is also expected to take place.
Noticeably, the number of nominees for the summer MMFF did not conform to the traditional five per category.
This year’s Best Actor category had six nominees, while the Best Actress only had three. That decision was explained by the jury chairman, international actress Dolly de Leon.
“Unfortunately, you cannot please everybody with the nominees we released,” said Dolly. “Just because one is not nominated, we are not saying he is discounted. The decision to choose the nominees became really hard for all of us.”
“Believe it or not, it wasn’t easy for us to come up with these results, but these are all for the best. At the end of the day, these are really for the industry,” added she.
“If one feels bad because he was not nominated, that’s normal and natural. I understand him. And I know how that feels. If one feels bad, that’s understandable.”
In every category, Dolly revealed they found it hard to trim the nominees. “Our style of voting, each vote gets a point,” she explained. “That means the interval between two nominees are far apart.”
“If the nominees were six, that means the margin was so near or small, we couldn’t trim it down. The Best Actress nominees were only three because the margin to the fourth nominee was really far, so we were able to trim the nominees to just three.”
Vice chairman of the jury was director Jose Javier Reyes, while members were stage director, writer and member of the House of Representatives of the Fourth District of Pangasinan Christopher “Toff” de Venecia; Rep. Ma. Rachel Arenas of the Third District of Pangasinan; member of Party List Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa Aloysia Tiongson Lim; former MMDA general manager and current DOTR Undersecretary Thomas Orbos; professor, author and former dean of the UP College of Communication Dr. Rolando Tolentino; MMDA Corporate Planning and Management Staff director, lawyer Rochelle Ona; 2003 MMFF Best Supporting Actor and 2019 FAMAS Best Actor Victor Neri; and journalist and former member of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino Mario Bautista.