Limelight

By Alvin I. Dacanay  Last Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) revealed online its list of nominees for the 89th Academy Awards. As expected, this year’s list offers several surprises, among these Mel Gibson’s best-director nomination for the World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge and the exclusion of Arrival’s Amy Adams from the best actress category. 

New theater company Sugid Productions Inc., in collaboration with the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation, is staging Chris Millado’s 1985 play Buwan at Baril sa E-flat Major (Moon and Gun in E-flat Major) as its maiden production at the Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco Auditorium of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Center in Quezon City until February 12. 

While some candidates of the 65th Miss Universe Pageant were enjoying the cool breeze of Baguio City and the warmth of its residents last Wednesday, others were in Manila to support a non-governmental organization (NGO) that delivers about 3,600 meals to women in need. 

New operas; arts festivals; concerts; exciting collaborations in theater, dance and music; and the launch of the updated encyclopedia of Philippine arts will be the highlights of the 2017 season of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). 

Noli Me Tangere: The Opera (Touch Me Not: The Opera), National Artists Felipe de Leon Sr. and Guillermo Tolentino’s full-length operatic adaptation of Dr. José Rizal’s groundbreaking 1887 novel of the same title, will be staged once more by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and J&S Productions Inc. at the former’s Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater) from January …

By Alvin I. Dacanay  Four months after winning the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, Lav Diaz’s revenge drama Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left) continues to reap accolades abroad, the latest of which are three nominations at the 11th Asian Film Awards (AFA). 

Top telecommunications and digital-services provider Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and mobile leader Smart Communications, together with broadcast station TV5, bring the much anticipated 65th Miss Universe Pageant closer to Filipinos everywhere through the digital and social-media services running on the country’s most extensive and robust fixed-line and wireless networks. 

Los Angeles—Hollywood A-listers, including Academy Award winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, recently participated in a farewell video honoring outgoing United States President Barack Obama.

Violinist Diomedes Sazara Jr. is set to join the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), under the baton of Maestro Yoshikazu Fukumura, in its first concert of the new year, which will be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater) on January 20 at 8 p.m. 

If there’s a definite bright spot in what many people, including myself, consider an awful year for the Philippines and the world, it’s the fact that Filipino films earned unprecedented acclaim in film festivals here and overseas in 2016.