Janine Gutierrez nabs her first Best Actress award

Roderick Paulate just had talks with Rex Tiri, the owner of T-Rex Films for a possible film project next year. This should be interesting since Kuya Dick hasn’t had a film for quite a while.

When he became busy as a politician, Kuya Dick accepted very few acting projects. Now that he is back into acting, Kuya Dick’s fans will surely love to see him in a movie.

Kuya Dick is in the TV series “One of the Baes” where he is playing the father of Rita Daniela. But he has a secret – he is a closet gay, which he has revealed to his adoptive daughter.

Kuya Dick’s role as Pabs is one of the reasons why “One of the Baes” is a must-see every night on GMA. Nobody does a gay role better than Kuya Dick.

***

Joem Bascon is happy to be playing a challenging role in “The Annulment,” the upcoming movie from Regal Entertainment. He plays the male lead in this Mac Alejandre film which has award-winning actress Lovi Poe as the female lead.

The actor said he has had his fair share of teeny-bopper roles or pa-cute roles when he was starting out in the business. Now that he is more mature (he’s on his 13th year as an actor), Joem said it is important to choose his acting assignments carefully. He said he should accept roles which will challenge him as an actor.

“I am happy, honored and blessed that Regal has given me the opportunity to be the lead star. It’s my first time to do something like this. And I had to do some many love scenes, which surpassed the kind of love scenes I did in my past films. My love scenes here in ‘The Annulment’ are also daring,” added Joem.

He said he is happy to be working with Lovi and direk Mac. In this time and age when it seems hard for older actors to get lead roles, Joem is very grateful for the trust that Regal gave him and entrusted to him the lead role in “The Annulment.”

***

“Babae at Baril,” a co-production between Cignal Entertainment and EpicMedia, was one of the biggest winners at the recently concluded QCinema International Film Festival awards night held at Novotel Araneta City in Quezon City.

The film took home top honors including Best Director for Rae Red, Best Actress for Janine Gutierrez as well as the Gender Sensitivity Award. It was the first best actress award for Janine from a prestigious festival.

This year’s QCinema International Film Festival was the biggest, showcasing over 70 films, including new films making their world premieres and titles that have gathered international acclaim. “Babae at Baril” was one of the three Filipino films featured in the festival’s main competition “Asian Next Wave.”

The movie tells the story of the nameless “Babae,” a lowly saleslady in a local department store who meekly endures the various daily indignities of being a minimum wage earner – from the lengthy queues and difficult commute, the humiliation of her overbearing manager, the intrusive body searchers by the company security guard and the abuse by her customers. Her plight off work is no different, as she gets cat-called by drunks every time she walks by her neighborhood, and is threatened by her sleazy landlord trying to evict her for missing rent. When she finally gets home, there’s no one there but her roommate who couldn’t care less about her.

Things come to a head when she finds a loaded gun in the trash. Suddenly, she has the power to fight back, do anything she wants, talk back to whomever she wants, and even hurt anyone she wants.

In its movie review, Rappler.com described the movie as “brimming with relevant and radical insight. It doesn’t just take exquisite skill to make a film like ‘Babae at Baril.’ It takes courage.”

“Our recent win at the QCinema International Film Festival has inspired us to produce more content that will not only reflect the realities of Filipino life and our culture but also strive to create works of lasting social significance,” said Cignal TV President and CEO Jane Basas.

Cignal Entertainment is the original content division of Cignal TV, the country’s leading Pay TV provider. Cignal Entertainment aims to develop high-quality Filipino content for its various in-house channels and platforms, and for the global audience.

Epicmedia, on the other hand, is an award-winning independent production company that has produced local box office hits and championed films in Berlinale, Venice, Toronto, Busan and Tokyo. It has also housed numerous international co-productions and launched the new voices of Philippine cinema.