Filmfest: The night of the young blood

It was the night of young blood. Except for veteran and multi-awarded Eddie Garcia who bagged the best actor plum for his role as the patriarch of a Filipino-Chinese clan in Regal Films’ Mano Po, the three other major winners were all young – Ara Mina (best actress) and Kris Aquino (best supporting actress) also for Mano Po, and Piolo Pascual (for Star Cinema’s Dekada ’70) as best supporting actor.

A favorite from the start of the 17-day Metro Filmfest, which ends on Jan. 10, Mano Po also won the best picture and the Gatpuno Antonio Villegas Cultural awards, and also those for best director (Joel Lamangan), best screenplay (Roy Iglesias), best cinematography (Leslie Garchitorena), best musical score (Von de Guzman), best editing (Tara Illenberger), best original story (Lily Monteverde and Roy Iglesias) and best production design (Tatus Aldana).

All but one of the major winners were present, with Eddie and Ara opening their acceptance speeches by saying "Tosya" (thank you in Chinese). Most of the performers in Mano Po deliver their dialogue partly in Chinese, including Kris who impressed her mom, former President Corazon Aquino, during the movie’s premiere. "I was surprised to hear her speak fluent Chinese," beamed Tita Cory. "She’s good in the movie."

Kris was not present at the Gabi ng Parangal held Friday night at the PICC. She left alone for Los Angeles, California on Christmas Eve for a well-deserved Christmas break, presumably to recuperate further after a bout of viral measles which she got during a three-day shoot for Mano Po in freezing-cold Beijing.

The Metro Filmfest, extended by seven days to accommodate two more films which didn’t make it to the Magic 7, MaQ Films’ Spirit Warriors 2; The Short Cut and OctoArts/M-ZET Films’ Lastikman, was kicked off on a controversial note when Regal matriarch Mother Lily and M-ZET producer protested the non-inclusion of Warriors and Lastikman as official entries, prompting the Metro Filmfest committee to extend the annual event started back in 1966 by the late Mayor Antonio Villegas as highlight of the Araw ng Maynila celebration and expanded Metro-wide in 1975 by the late Marcos presidential adviser and Censors chief Guillermo "Gimo" de Vega.

This year, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), which is in-charge of the filmfest, decided to make it nationwide.

Except for a very minor "walkout" staged by the Star Cinema group in protest against the non-inclusion of Dekada ’70 author Lualhati Bautista, who won a Palanca award for the same novel, among the nominees for best story, this year’s awards ceremony was generally peaceful.

There’s a report that the Agimat (Anting-Anting ni Lolo) group, the top-grossing action-fantasy topbilled by Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., is complaining why Spirit Warriors won the award for best visual effects (Dodge Ledesma and the Roadrunner Team) when its visual effects were done in "mono" while those of Agimat were in the more advanced "Dolby Digital system."

Director Chito Roño, who also megged Dekada ’70, was overheard saying when Spirit Warriors was named third best picture (with Dekada as second best picture), "If Spirit is the third best picture among the nine aspirants for the ‘Magic 7’, why did they (the MMDA people) disqualify it as official entry?"

Each of the official entries to the Metrofest got P4 million "incentive money" donated by President Arroyo through Caloocan City Mayor Rey Malonzo, head of the Metro Filmfest committee.

The rest of the winners are:

• Best float – Agimat

• Best child performer – John Wayne Sace (Dekada ’70)

• Best theme song (Nasaan Ka Man) – Home Alone da Riber

• Best sound recording (Nestor Mutya) – Hula Mo, Huli Ko

• Best make-up artist (Warren Munar) – Spirit Warriors