IT is a lean harvest for cinema, if the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP), the oldest and considered the premier critics group in the country, has only four films competing for the Gawad Urian Best Film. These are: Barber’s Tales, Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon, Bwaya and Dagitab. The directors of three of the cited films can be considered Gawad Urian veterans: Jun Robles Lana for Barber’s, Francis Xavier Pasion for Bwaya, and Lav Diaz for Mula. Giancarlo Abrahan is the director of Dagitab.
Lana’s Barber’s Tales is set in the early years of martial law when rumor-mongering was declared a crime. The film obliquely refers to how truths in whatever form and substance got waylaid because we have our own way of believing. A politician’s wife is gossiped about as losing her beauty; a young man is seen as a rebel without a cause; and a woman is doubted for her skills as a barber. A village that is hidden almost in a valley is about to be visited by the dictator in this film that remembers the dark years of the 1970s in a magical realistic way.
Pasion’s Bwaya takes us closer to the Agusan marshland where many years ago, a girl was killed by a crocodile. The crocodile, bwaya in the local language, becomes dangerously a metaphor for the coexistence forged between the Manobos and nature, as represented by the Agusan marshlands, home to crocodiles and other creatures that stand for isolation and distance. Based on a true story about the first time a crocodile killed a human being, the film deals with the power and politics of myth and ecology.
Diaz’s Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon looks back again at those years from 1972 till the early 1980s. After some long years, Filipino filmmakers are confronting memories of that era. In this film, cryptic events are all over the country. Animals and human beings are being killed and a president declares martial law to create a new society but instead brings about a dark, dark epoch in a nation’s history. The filmmaker, of course, differently from the social historian, looks at these years and imbues them with an imagination that can only be called cinematic. Abrahan’s Dagitab looks into the life of two university professors: the woman is left always alone and while coping with the absence of a partner, she longs for the intimacy of a body. The woman figures in a scandal while the man goes back to the mountains and is lost in the search for his former partner who is now an enchanted being.
The fight for Best Actor and Best Actress is an interesting one. Nominated for Best Actor category are Robert Arevalo for Hari ng Tondo; Dennis Trillo in The Janitor; Allen Dizon for Ang Magkakabaung; Nonie Buencamino for Dagitab; Arnold Reyes for Kasal; JM de Guzman for That Thing Called Tadhana; Jericho Rosales for Red; Robin Padilla for Bonifacio; and both Sandino Martin and J.C Santos for Esprit de Corps.
Always the event of the season, the Best Actress category is an open season for excellence. Nora Aunor is nominated for Dementia. Eugene Domingo, as the woman who starts to cut the hair of the men in her village for different political and aesthetic reasons, is nominated for Barber’s Tales. Completing the list are: Angeli Bayani, who was last year’s Gawad Urian Best Actress, is nominated for Bwaya. Eula Valdez gets a nod for Dagitab; Nova Villa, First Ko si Third; Hazel Orencio, Mula; Angelica Panganiban, That Thing Called Tadhana; and Ai-Ai de las Alas for Ronda.
The MPP wishes to formally and officially announce that Nora Aunor is this year’s recipient of the Natatanging Gawad Urian, which is the equivalent of the Lifetime Achievement Award. The recognition is made significant by the fact that Aunor was the first recipient of the Gawad Urian Best Actress for her compelling performance in the film Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos in 1976. Directed by Mario O’Hara, the film was produced by Nora Aunor herself.
The Gawad Urian is slated to be held on June 16. The venue will be announced later.
The following is the list of nominees in the top categories:
PICTURE
- Barber’s Tales, APT Entertainment/Octobertrain Films
- Bwaya, Cinemalaya, FrontRow International, Eight Films, Source of Light Films
- Dagitab, Ten17P
- Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon, Sine Olivia Pilipinas
DIRECTION
- Giancarlo Abrahan, Dagitab
- Lav Diaz, Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon
- Jun Lana, Barber’s Tales
- Jason Paul Laxamana, Ang Magkakabaung
- Francis Xavier Pasion, Bwaya
- Auraeus Solito, Esprit de Corps
ACTOR
- Robert Arevalo, Hari ng Tondo
- Noni Buencamino, Dagitab
- Allen Dizon, Ang Magkakabaung
- Juan Miguel de Guzman, That Thing Called Tadhana
- Sandino Martin, Esprit de Corps
- Robin Padilla, Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo
- Arnold Reyes, Kasal
- Jericho Rosales, Red
- JC Santos, Esprit de Corps
- Dennis Trillo, The Janitor
ACTRESS
- Nora Aunor, Dementia
- Angeli Bayani, Bwaya
- Ai-Ai de las Alas, Ronda
- Eugene Domingo, Barber’s Tales
- Hazel Orencio, Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon
- Angelica Panganiban, That Thing Called Tadhana
- Eula Valdez, Dagitab
- Nova Villa, First Ko si Third
SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Nico Antonio, Red
- Roeder Camañag, Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon
- Martin del Rosario, Dagitab
- Joel Lamangan, Violator
- Nicco Manalo, Barber’s Tales
- Karl Medina, Bwaya
- Jess Mendoza, Mauban
- Noel Santodomingo, Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Shamaine Buencamino, Barber’s Tales
- Iza Calzado, Barber’s Tales
- Alessandra de Rossi, Mauban: Ang Resiko
- Barbie Forteza, Marquina
- Karenina Haniel, Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon
- Gladys Reyes, Ang Magkakabaung
- Gloria Sevilla, M: Mother’s Maiden Name
SCREENPLAY
- Auraeus Solito, Esprit de Corps
- Jun Robles Lana, Barber’s Tales
- Lav Diaz, Mula Sa Kung Ano ang Noon
- Francis Xavier Pasion, Bwaya
- Giancarlo Abrahan V, Dagitab
- Jason Paul Laxamana, Ang Magkakabaung
- Enzo Williams, Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo
- Alessandro Genovesi, Soap Opera
- Antoinette Jadaone, That Thing Called Tadhana