The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
In a stage design that brought forth the mood and atmosphere of fiesta season, the 2023 Summer Metro Manila Film Festival (SMMFF) awards rite held at the New Frontier Theater in Cubao Tuesday night was a moment of triumph among underrared tinsel town denizens.
Perennial screen villainess Gladys Reyes took home the Best Actress plum for her moving portrayal of a suffering widow who gives in to amicable settlement with the family who accidentally killed her husband on the road in Brillante Ma. Mendoza’s “Apag.”
Former child star and a tenny-bopper mired in the mushy love team syndrome in the 90s who graduated from mostly support roles Romnick Sarmenta bagged the Best Actor trophy for his in-depth characterization of a gay English prof in Jun Robles Lana’s “About Us But Not About Us.”
Comic trans Kaladkaren brought home the Best Supporting Actress for her no-nonsense performance as a man enslaved in a woman’s body in Chris Martinez’s “Here Comes the Groom” while
erstwhile young star Keempee de Leon won Best Supporting Actor for his gay role in the same movie.
IdeaFirst Company, Octobertrain Productions and Quantum Films’ “About Us But Not About Us” was proclaimed Best Picture and Best Direction for Robles Lana.