Iza Calzado finally triumphs at Star Awards

Iza Calzado won the Movie Actress of the Year at the 34th PMPC Star Awards for her performance in the psychological thriller “Bliss” directed by Jerrold Tarog.

It’s a much deserved award for Iza. It’s about time she won at the Star Awards after several nominations.

The newly-minted Star Awards Movie Actress of the Year had a touching speech: “Ako po ay nanalo sa ibang bansa para sa pelikulang ‘Bliss’ pero iba po ang manalo sa sarili mong bayan at pahalagahan ka ng kapwa mo Pilipino. I hope I can continue to use this talent and platform to bring light into this world. I would like to share this award to all the other nominees for the Movie Actress of the Year. Star Awards mean a lot to me. I grew up watching this because my father would always be a part of Star Awards. It means so much to me that I finally won and a major award at that.”

“Bliss” also won for Iza the Best Performance Award at the Osaka International Film Festival last year.

We are happy with Iza’s victory at the Star Awards and we hope that she wins more accolades from other award-giving bodies.

The other winners at the Star Awards are RS Francisco (Movie Actor of the Year) for Bhoy Intsik, Odette Khan (Movie Supporting Actress of the Year) for “Bar Boys” and Arnold Reyes (Movie Supporting Actor of the Year) for “Birdshot.”

Also a winner was the hit movie “Kita Kita,” starring Alessandra de Rossi and Empoy Marquez from Spring Films and Viva Films. It won Movie of the Year, Movie Director of the Year and Movie Screenplay of the Year for Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, and Movie Editor of the Year for Marya Ignacio.

The Cinema One Originals entry “Changing Partners” was another victor, taking home trophies for Indie Movie of the Year, Indie Director of the Year (Dan Villegas), Indie Screenplay of the Year (Vincent de Jesus and Lilit Reyes) and Indie Musical Score of the Year (Vincent de Jesus).

In the New Movie Actress of the Year category, declared co-winners were Joanna Ampil (“Ang Larawan”) and Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach (“GandaRappido: The Revengers Squad”) which we found rather odd. It is the choice of the PMPC so we will leave it at that. But frankly, we are really wondering how PMPC can say that the performance of Joanna and Pia in “Gandarrapido” are of the same level.

Winning New Movie Actor of the Year was McCoy de Leon for “Installado,” an entry to the ToFarm Film Festival directed by Jason Paul Laxamana.

***

After his much-talked about performance in “Wildflower” where he won the Best Actor from GEMS Awards, RK Bagatsing will take a few weeks rest before starting work in a new TV series.

RK is joining Maja Salvador in the Kapamilya actress’ concert tour in the United States, after a series of shows in the provinces. After being an actor, RK will try his hand at singing.

Upon his return from Maja’s concert tour with Joseph Marco and Vin Abrenica, he will begin taping for “Araw Gabi,” which also stars comebacking actor JM De Guzman.

Reminiscing about “Wildflower,” RK said he won’t forget the show because it was instrumental in making people notice his talent. He is very thankful with the good feedback for his portrayal in “Wildflower” and is looking forward in doing a new series for the Kapamilya network.

The brother of  Raymond Bagatsing is happy that his career is doing well. If before it was hard to land a role in a commercial or an indie film, he has slowly but surely made his presence felt. The good reviews on his work in “Widflower” and the award he got from GEMS as best actor were a big boost and inspires him to do even better.

He also gives credit to his “Wildflower” co-stars Tirso Cruz III, Aiko Melendez and Maja for their superb acting which inspired him to do his best. He is likewise hoping to land a challenging movie role.