ON Sinag Maynila’s maiden run last year, drama was the pervading genre of the entries fielded in the local indie-film festival. This year it spiced things up with the addition of two action films on its slate.
On its first awards night, all but one trophy went to the film Imbisibol. This year four out of the five entries emerged from the awarding ceremonies, held on Sunday night at the Samsung Theater in SM Aura Premier, with a plum.
The celebrated master of slow cinema Lav Diaz manned the jury, together with international film critics Roger Garcia, Kenji Ishazaki and Philip Cheah.
Mrs. was crowned as the biggest winner, bagging the coveted Best Picture prize to go with the victories of Adolfo Alix Jr. as Best Director, Elizabeth Oropesa as Best Actress and Albert Banzon for Best in Cinematography.
The action film Expressway nabbed recognitions of Best Actor for Alvin Anson, who bested his costar Aljur Abrenica, Best Musical Score for Francis de Veyra and Best Editing for Benjamin Tolentino.
Lila, a psychological thriller, took home the 2016 Blink Box Office Film title, the SM’s People Choice’s Award, and the Best Production Design prize for Mariel Hizon. Meanwhile, T.P.O. won Best Sound for Drew Milallios and Best Screenplay for Joselito Altarejos and Archie del Mundo. The other entry is the action film Dyamper.
Acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza—who is also Sinag Maynila’s cofounder, along with Wilson Tieng—sees the finer balance in the competition this year as a welcome sign for the young filmfest, which was conceptualized with the aim of providing a new venue for independent filmmakers to showcase their chef d’oeuvres about the lives of Filipinos.
“This year is definitely more diverse than last year. Now we have an action genre, and there are more audience-friendly films. I think there’s an increase in terms of box office and audience, so we’d like to keep that,” the 55-year-old director said, who’s the first and only Filipino to have competed in the official selection of the trifecta of the world’s major film festivals: Cannes, Venice and Berlin.
Adding to the expansion, Sinag Maynila introduced two new categories this year, the first being the Samsung Cinephone, where 13 films made using the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 vied for the title. Ultimately, it was won by 99% by John Paolo Barcena.
The other novel listing is the Short Film Category, featuring 5- to 15-minute shorts, with Rafhael Evangelista’s Apuhap winning the plum.
Mendoza, who’s also the festival director, said they plan to keep the snowball rolling even bigger in the coming years. “We’re in the stage where we’re trying to experiment with everything. Next year we will try another way of inviting and exploring other genres and other filmmakers.”
Image credits: Roy Domingo