Leading ladies and film festivals

Let me begin this column by offering congratulations. First, to acclaimed actress Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino, who received a best actress nomination at the Ninth Annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) for her marvelous performance in writer-director Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo’s offbeat comedy Lorna. Her nomination is the only one the Philippines got this year, and the country’s 10th since the Apsa was established. 

An entry to last year’s Cinema One Originals Film Festival, Lorna focuses on a 60-year-old single mother (Centenera-Buencamino) who opens herself up again to love, which leads her to hilarious situations. I remember, while watching the film during the festival, being blown away, not only by the performances of Centenera-Buencamino and, in a rare acting turn, top filmmaker Lav Diaz (who plays her former classmate-turned-lover), but also by its irreverence and wicked humor. Such a movie is unusual in this country.

Lorna ended its festival run with a best supporting actress win for Maria Isabel Lopez (who portrays Lorna’s youth-obssessed close friend), but after a few more screenings the film was almost never heard from again. It didn’t even figure prominently in this year’s film-award derbies, maybe because it is yet to get a regular run in cineplexes. Hopefully, news of Centenera-Buencamino’s nomination would prompt someone to arrange a run, or release the movie on DVD.

This is not the first time Centenera-Buencamino received international recognition. In 2012 the Asian Film Awards honored her sterling supporting turn as the closeted lesbian daughter of a faded opera singer in Loy Arcenas’ family drama Niño.

Career-wise, 2015 has been a good year for Centenera-Buencamino. She earned very favorable notices for her performances in Tanghalang Pilipino’s (TP) production of Elmer Gatchalian’s Juego de Peligro (an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses) and Red Turnip Theater’s production of Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations. She also received a Gawad Urian best supporting actress nomination for Jun Robles Lana’s Barber’s Tales.

Aliw Awards

Congratulations, too, to this year’s Aliw Award nominees for theater. I’m especially pleased that several plays that debuted at the 11th edition of the Virgin Labfest were recognized.

These are Eljay Castro Deldoc’s Si Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala (best non-musical production and best non-musical stage director for Ed Lacson Jr.); Maynard Manansala’s Dalawang Gabi (best non-musical actor for Ibarra Guballa and best non-musical actress for Meann Espinosa); Jerome Ignacio’s Kublihan (best non-musical actor for Abner Delina Jr.); Layeta P. Bucoy’s Uod, Butete at si Myrna (best non-musical actress for Angeli Bayani); and Nicolas B. Pichay’s Macho Dancer: A Musical (best actor in a featured role for Alexis Yasuda).

The announcement of the Aliw nominations came after the bittersweet, wonderfully acted Dalawang Gabi and another Virgin Labfest XI play, spoken-word artist Juan Miguel Severo’s engaging Hintayan ng Langit, concluded their successful campus tour earlier this month.

It also came before Maria Isabella, an entrancing adaptation of prize-winning writer Dean Francis Alfar’s short story “The Kite of Stars,” is to be staged again, with dramatist-professor Glenn Sevilla Mas’ award-winning Games People Play, at the Power Mac Center Spotlight arts venue in Circuit Makati in December, under the title “Children’s Plays for Adults.” Lacson, who directed both plays when they were first mounted, will again be at the helm of this twinbill production.

Incidentally, Dalawang Gabi, Hintayan ng Langit and Maria Isabella will be restaged at next year’s Virgin Labfest as Set E, or the “Virgin Labfest XI Revisited” set, since they were chosen as the three most popular plays at this year’s edition.

Also nominated is Dalanghita Productions’ very successful Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady: The Musical, an expansion of graphic novelist Carlo Vergara’s maid-meets-superhero one-act comedy that was first staged at the Virgin Labfest in 2013. It was cited in four categories: best musical production, best actor in a musical (Markki Stroem), best actress in a musical (Frenchie Dy and Bituin Escalante) and best actress in a featured role (Kim Molina).

Although Leading Lady faces stiff competition from two lauded Mabini musicals (Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas’ Ang Huling Lagda ni Apolinario Mabini and TP’s Mabining Mandirigma) and Resorts World’s adaptation of the hit Sharon Cuneta-starrer Bituing Walang Ningning, among others, I think it has a good chance of clinching a prize or two.

If nothing else, Leading Lady’s five nods testify to not only the fine work of those cited, but also the valuable contributions of its incredibly talented—and tight—cast and the entire creative team, including Vergara, director Chris Martinez and composer-lyricist-musical director Vincent A. de Jesus.

Two festivals

If you’re a film buff like me, make sure to catch the movies showing at the Third QCinema International Film Festival, which opened on October 22 and will close on Saturday. Venues are Robinsons Galleria, Gateway and Trinoma cinemas.

Among the more than two dozen films participating in the festival, eight are Circle Competition finalists: Mario Cornejo’s Apocalypse Child; Cesar Hernando’s Gayuma; Chuck Gutierrez’s Iisa; Pepe Diokno’s Kapatiran; Jet Leyco’s Matangtubig; Mihk Vergara’s Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo; Prime Cruz’s Sleepless; and Lemuel Lorca’s Water Lemon.

Other noteworthy movies at the festival include Lana’s latest film Anino sa Likod ng Buwan, which won four prizes, including best director and best actress for LJ Reyes, at the 13th Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Vladivostok, Russia, last month; Anatomiya ng Pag-ibig, an adaptation of Allan B. Lopez’s Palanca Award-winning full-length play of the same title that was first screened at the 11th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival in August; Khavn de la Cruz’s Desaparadiso, about a family dealing with the forced disappearance of one of its members; and Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendour and Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Opening on Oct. 28—this time, at Shangri-La Plaza Shang Cineplex—is another festival: the first Argentine Film Festival. The films here—chosen because the organizers want to highlight the diversity of the South American country’s movies—range from comedy to drama, and from live-action to animation.

They are La Reina (The Queen), a short documentary on a preteen girl’s painful preparations for an important carnival; El Escarabajo de Oro (The Gold Bug), a film loosely based on an Edgar Allan Poe story that centers on a group of people who go on an mad quest to find a mysterious treasure; Metegol (Underdog), about a boy and his football team who try to get back together and prepare to face their rivals on the field; La Corporación (The Corporation), which focuses on a businessman whose perfect world is threatened by a signed contract; and Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales), a foreign-language film nominee at this year’s Oscars that features six stories united by the idea of vengeance and violence.

Unlike QCinema, this festival’s run is much shorter; it also ends on Saturday.

So many films, so very little time.

For the complete list of the Ninth Annual Asia Pacific Screen Award nominations, visit www.asiapacificscreenacademy.com. For more information on the Third QCinema International Film Festival, visit qcinema.ph. For more details about the first Argentine Film Festival, call (632) 370-2500, local 597, or visit www.shangrila-plaza.com.