Limelight

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.

Six years after debuting to critical and audience acclaim, the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s (Peta) hit comedy-musical Care Divas returns once more to the Peta Theater Center to open its 50th year with 50 shows from February 3 to March 19. 

A twinbill of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci—better known as Cav/Pag—will be the second offering of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) Metropolitan Opera in HD (high definition) Season 4 at Greenbelt 3 cinemas on January 10. 

Prolific, prize-winning composer for stage and screen Jesse Lucas is set to hold a free three-hour master class on the art of writing music for film and television at the 1701 Little Rooms Upstairs in Quezon City on January 29. 

In an unprecedented promotional move, the 42nd Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) execu­tive committee recently gave producers of the festival’s official entries the option to grant a 30-percent discount on tickets to students, senior citizens, and people with disabilities (PWDs).

Filipino homemakers show their love for their family by using only the best ingredi­ents to cook the most de­licious meals. And when it comes to chicken dishes, they use only the freshest, cleanest, and superior-quality poultry products, like Bounty Fresh Chicken.