Philippine Entertainment Portal

Yul Servo is once again honored in Belgium for his acting skills. The councilor of Manila just came back from Brussels where he accepted his Best Actor award for the film Torotot (international title: Destierro).

He is doubly happy since his other film, Brutus, was named Best Asian Film during the 35th edition of the Brussels International Independent Film Festival.

PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) was able to personally congratulate Yul when he arrived at the Cinema One press conference last Wednesday, November 12, held at the Gusi Restaurant in Quezon City. What was his reaction when he was called onstage as the Best Actor?

“Tuwang-tuwa kasi ako bago binanggit yung Best Actor parang sabi ng jury, hindi sila nahirapan sa pagpili sa akin kasi lahat nag-agree sila. Lahat ng international jury. Natuwa ako, habang lumalakad ako, parang nanginginig yung tuhod ko…parang aatakihin din ako, e. Nagpapalpipate yung puso ko,” he recalls.

He revealed that his Best Actor award comes with a cash prize of 200 Euros but the trophy will be shipped to him by December. Through the help of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, Yul and Direk Maryo J. delos Reyes were able to attend the film fest, which took place from November 4 to 9.

In Torotot, Yul plays a man who suspects that his wife (Precious Adona) is having an affair with another man. His best friend (played by Baron Geisler) had previously committed a crime of passion when he murdered his wife (played by Maui Taylor).

Produced by Viva Digital, Torotot is directed by Maryo J. delos Reyes, who is also Yul’s manager. The director of Brutus, Tara Illenberger, also attended the film fest to accept the award of Best Asian Film. Shot in Oriental Mindoro, this Cinemalaya 2008 entry is about Mangyan children who transport illegal logs by floating them down the Lisap River. Yul is cast as the doctor-turned-NPA leader who accompanies the two children.

More than 25 countries participated in the 35th edition of the Brussels IFF. This competition, which started in 1974, has already recognized Yul in the past.

In the 2002 edition of the Brussels IFF, Yul shared the Best Actor award with Joel Torre for the five-hour film Batang West Side. This Lav Diaz film also bagged the Best Picture trophy that year.

This November, Yul will be seen in the Cinema One entry Dose (Twelve), which is about the close bond between a young boy and a gardener. The fourth edition of the Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival will have its campus tour from November 19 to 27. The seven competing films will have theatrical screenings at IndieSine, Robinsons Galleria from December 3 to 10.

Philippine Entertainment Portal

Just a few days after winning two awards in the 6th International Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Russia, Brillante Mendoza was once again honored in an international film fest. Brillante, first-time filmmaker Francis Xavier Pasion, and John Torres were among the directors who won in the recently concluded Bangkok International Film Festival.

The sixth edition of the Bangkok IFF took place from September 23 to 30 in Thailand. Ferdy Lapuz, one of the producers of Serbis, say that this film won the Golden Kinnaree Award in the Southeast Asian competition at the Bangkok IFF. Serbis shows the life of a family who operate a run-down movie house showing sex flicks in Pampanga. Gina Pareño, Julio Diaz, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin, and Kristoffer King are some of the stars who topbill this award-winning film.

The Cinemalaya 2008 entry Jay, directed by Francis Xavier Pasion, bagged the Special Mention Award in the main competition category. Baron Geisler and Coco Martin appear in this film about a TV producer creating a documentary about a homosexual teacher.

John Torres’ Years When I was A Child Outside won special mention in the Southeast Asian competition. This 2007 Cinemanila International Film Festival entry is also known for its alternative title is Taon noong ako’y anak sa labas.

According to the official website of the Bangkok IFF, the Golden Kinnaree Award “symbolizes the creative spirit—looking to the future, while respecting the achievements and traditions of the past—flying between the worlds of reality and imagination.” This award was won by Brillante Mendoza for Serbis.

The winners were chosen by a six-member jury panel, including Thailand-based, Lao-Australian-ethnic actor Ananda Everingham, Swedish festival artistic director Martial Knaebel and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. The Bangkok IFF has two divisions: the main competition and Southeast Asian competition, each featuring 10 films from the world and the region.

The Bangkok IFF screened around 80 films from over 40 countries during its week-long run.

ABs-CBN News

In absentia, internationally renowned Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza recently won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac) for his film “Foster Child” at the Brisbane International Film Festival in Brisbane, Australia August 10.

“Hindi na ako nakapunta sa Brisbane dahil ang daming trabaho sa Pilipinas. Pero nagpapasalamat pa rin ako dahil kahit wala ako ro’n, they recognized my work,” said Mendoza in a phone interview Thursday night.

“I really wanted to attend the event but I decided not to dahil pang-world view rin naman ang mga inihahanda ko sa Pilipinas,” added Brillante, also known as Dante Mendoza.

“Foster Child”’s victory in Brisbane came after it won the Best Film and Best Actress award for Cherry Pie Picache at the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa last July.

Surprisingly, Picache’s victory wasn’t celebrated in the country. “Sanay na si Cherry Pie sa panalo. Kahit wala nang publicity, okey lang para sa kanya. What is more important is she is still active and she delivers the wares very effectively,” stressed Mendoza who kept mum when he got the coveted award in Durban.

“Actually, it was a birthday gift for me. I celebrated my birthday one day after the awards night in South Africa. I celebrated silently. Mas maganda ‘yon para mas nararamdaman ang victory,” the controversial filmmaker opined.

“I didn’t bother to spread the news even to you, right? You were here during my birthday. I had no party but you spent time to be with me. You were with our friend Dennis Adobas, right?” recalled Mendoza referring to this writer as guest on his natal day.

Meanwhile, “Serbis,” another much talked about film opus of Mendoza was officially invited to the 46th New York International Film Festival in New York.

According to Brillante, it is the very first time ever that a Filipino film got invited to this prestigious fete.

“Sana naman ay i-pratronize ng mga kababayan natin sa Amerika ang ‘Serbis’ para malaman nila na hindi ito basta lang gay film. May socio-political ingredients ang pelikula,” said Mendoza.

ABS-CBN News

Filipino independent film “Confessional” was hailed Best Film in the First Features section of the 10th Osian’s Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema last Saturday, July 19th in New Delhi, India.

The film, directed by Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Antipuesto, tells the story of an amateur documentarist who brings out an explosive confession of a crooked politician.

The film’s executive producer and project head of Cinema One Originals, Ronald Arguelles relayed the news of the film’s victory to abs-cbnNEWS.com.

The acclaimed film won the most number of awards from last year’s Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival including Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Screenplay and Best Director.

Tarog said he did not think that a film like “Confessional” would be appreciated abroad.

Tarog and Antipuesto received $5,000 and the Osian’s Originating Film Development fund worth $20,000 to finance their next film.

The Osian’s-Cinefan also honored Filipino scriptwriter Jose F. Lacaba with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lacaba was known for his three Lino Brocka films “Jaguar,” “Bayan Ko” and “Orapronobis.” These films were also shown at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Philippine News

LOS ANGELES – Ramona Diaz is a free spirit who is curious, adventurous and daring when it comes to her films. She has done the controversial “Imelda” documentary and is currently working on “The Learning” which is a documentary about the Baltimore school system’s experience with teachers from the Philippines.

The petite producer-writer-director based in Baltmore described herself as a Filipino “in every way possible.”

The big break

She narrated how she got into show business: “During my junior year at Emerson College in Boston, they had this wonderful program where you got to spend the summer in Los Angeles interning for a major production company.

I landed at the now-defunct Mary Tyler Moore (MTM) Productions on the CBS/Studio City lot. These were the years they were producing golden television – Hill St. Blues, St. Elsewhere – groundbreaking shows. Then, of course, there was the fun show, Remington Steele with Pierce Brosnan. This was his breakthrough role. I got to know people working on these shows. A year later, after graduating, I went back to Los Angeles because Remington Steele had an opening for an assistant position. And that’s how I started.”

‘Princess Nice’

“I came here already in my mid-teens after having lived all of my life in Makati and going to school at Assumption. So being from a homogeneous (or so it seemed to me) environment, I did not think of myself as being less entitled, if that makes sense. In fact, for better or for worse, I felt very entitled,” she confessed.

“So when I started working in Los Angeles, I was just me. This meant that there were certain things that had an “ew” factor to me – like getting coffee, or lunch, or their dry cleaning, or taking their car for a carwash (which as you know is big in LA) – that I just made clear I didn’t do. And the other assistants would be like “you said no?” But I think I got away with it because of how I look, I am petite and people do not feel threatened by me. They thought I was ‘cute.’

She continued, “And I got dressed to the nines everyday even though there was no dress code. In retrospect, I think that helped. And I also said no jokingly and in a very Pinoy way – meaning I was still sweet even as I said no – I tell you nothing beats nice.

“So much so that I was teased as the princess from the Philippines. And the executive producer of the show would always come to my defense and would never ask me to do anything that I felt was not my job so that sent a signal to the rest of the producing and writing staff.

The importance of being humble

“Now, of course, the question is, how then would they take me seriously, right? I remember there was this writer on the show who was not a very good grammarian if you can believe that. I would look over his script and actually change stuff to make it grammatically correct and by the time the script was published, it was in correct form.

He knew I was doing it but I did not make it a big deal and advertise it to the world. But he knew and he was grateful and then, of course, we formed some kind of bond and he would start asking me what it was I really wanted to do, what I thought of this movie, this book, etc. And then he would tell others on the staff what I said about this and that. He respected my opinions and vice versa so that’s how I transcended the mire that I might have gotten myself into.”

Among the people who inspired her, she said, was “this woman who worked for human resources at the now-defunct MTM who told me to always make it clear to people I worked with what it was I eventually wanted to do – be it write, produce, direct, edit. Whatever. To speak up, to let your dreams be known. She was also the first one who ever told me that a ‘no’ is never a no, it’s always a maybe.”

Persistence

Ramona admitted that she does not have an ultimate goal in her career. She explained, “It’s all a process for me and truly the journey to get someplace is infinitely more exciting than the arriving. So I would answer this by saying just as long as I can keep making films that are dear to me, that I have a stake in emotionally, I would be very happy.”

Asked if she ever got star-struck, Ramona confessed, “When I met Robert Redford at the Sundance Institute I think I got star-struck.”

She explained, “When I was in 7th grade, I had watched “The Way We Were” a dozen times with my best friend and we had memorized the dialogue to that film. Redford was at the height of his powers then and we would cry every time Barbara Streisand would comb her fingers through Redford’s hair. How corny no? But hey, I was 7th grade. “So when I finally met him, all I could think of was “you’re Hubbell Gardner” (his character’s name in the film). My publicist warned me to act ‘mature’ and that I am now a colleague and not a fan because at that time, I was at the Institute working on ‘Imelda.’

For those who want to break into Hollywood, Ramona advised, “First of all, know what it is you want to do in Hollywood. You cannot just say break into Hollywood, you have to define for yourself that what that means. Do you want to act, direct, write, sing – what?

And once you have done that you have to move either to Los Angeles or to New York. I think there is a lot of work to be had in New York for aspiring actors especially. And once you are at these cities, go out and meet people. Attend film festivals, go to panels, and put yourself out there. And always be you in all ways – in attitude and in look. Do not try to look like what you think is the look of the moment.”

“I remember reading an interview with Ang Lee and he was asked what he told his casting director when he was casting the female lead for ‘Lust, Caution’ and he said that he told her that he wanted the woman no one else wanted – meaning the woman who didn’t look like everyone else. And I would add the same thing that that woman at MTM who told me eons ago – never take no at face value, always just think of it as maybe. Be persistent and your own best advocate, no one else will be.”

ABS-CBN News

Filipino director Brillante “Dante” Mendoza has been a darling of the film festival circuit this past year, with several of his films being chosen for several international filmfests. This time around, however, Mendoza has done something no other Filipino director–apart from the late great National Artist for Film (posthumous) Lino Brocka, that is–has done: his film is included for competition in the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival in France.

The first and only time a Filipino director had a film including in the competition category of the Cannes was in 1984, when Brocka’s opus “Orapronobis” was accepted.

Now, 24 years later, Mendoza’s film “Serbis” has been included for competition at the Cannes. “Serbis” chronicles the struggles of a rural family that decides to run a prostitute service based in a fake theater.

The film stars veteran, multi-awarded actress Gina Pareño and talented newcomer Coco Martin.

Prestige list
Organisers of the Cannes film festival on Wednesday issued the list of 19 films competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or award closing the event, May 14-25. A 20th film from France is to be announced in the next few days.

Following is the list of contenders and directors:

– “Uc Maymun” (The Three Monkeys) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)

– “Le Silence De Lorna” (The Silence of Lorna) by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium)

– “Un Conte de Noel” (A Christmas Tale) by Arnaud Desplechin (France)

– “Changeling” by Clint Eastwood (United States)

– “Adoration” by Atom Egoyan (Canada)

– “Waltz With Bashir” by Ari Folman (Israel)

– “La Frontiere De l’Aube” (The Frontier Of Dawn) by Philippe Garrel (France)

– “Gomorra” by Matteo Garrone (Italy)

– “24 City” by Jia Zhangke (China)

– “Synecdoche, New York” by Charlie Kaufman (United States)

– “My Magic” by Eric Khoo (Singapore)

– “La Mujer Sin Cabeza” (Woman Without A Head) by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina)

– “Serbis” by Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)

– “Delta” by Kornel Mundruczo (Hungary)

– “Linha de Passe” (Line of Passage) by Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas (Brazil)

– “Che” by Steven Soderbergh (United States)

– “Il Divo” by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)

– “Leonera” by Pablo Trapero (Argentina)

– “The Palermo Shooting” by Wim Wenders (Germany)

Out of competition:

– “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” by Woody Allen (United States)

– “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” by Kim Jee-Woon (South Korea)

– “Kung Fu Panda” by Mark Osborne, John Stevenson (United States)

– “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” by Steven Spielberg (United States)

Singapore award
Mendoza earlier brought honor to the country when his film Slingshot (original Filipino title “Tirador”) emerged as this year’s major winner at the recently-concluded Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) 2008.

Celebrating its 21 years as one of the biggest events in Singapore, SIFF this year saw more than 200 films from over 40 countries showcased during its 18-day festival period from March 28 to April 14, 2008.

“Tirador” won Best Film at the Asean Feature Film category of the SIFF as well as the Netpac (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award and Best Director honors for Mr. Brillante Mendoza.

The movie stars Jiro Manio (lead star of “Magnifico”), Kristofer King, Coco Martin, Jaclyn Jose and Nathan Lopez. Lopez is still remembered by fans for his starring role in “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros” (international title of “The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros”).

Interestingly, Mendoza never knew his film won in the SIFF until after the awards were given. He didn’t even know that his film was entered in the festival by his agent. Thus, Mendoza was unable to attend the SIFF to receive the honor.

Filipino filmmaker John Torres (Years When I Was A Child Outside or Taon Noong Ako’y Anak sa Labas) received the award on behalf of Mr. Mendoza.

Seven (7) other Philippine films were featured at the festival in the non-competition category of Asian Cinema. These films included: Juan Baybayin, When Timawa meets Delgado, Death in the Land of Encantos, Santa Mesa, Years When I Was A Child Outside, PISAY (Philippine Science) and Ehem!Plo – Corruption and Integrity in the Philippine Society. Slingshot or Tirador was included in the Silver Screen Awards, a competition for the Best Asian Film Award.

Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Belen A. Fule-Anota together with other Embassy officials attended the showing of “Ehem!Plo – Corruption and Integrity in the Philippine Society” at a screening held at the Republic Polytechnic, Woodlands Campus last April 7.

They met with Filipino film directors Clodualdo Del Mundo, of Ehem!Plo and Mr. Rox Lee of Juan Baybayin and Mr. Philip Cheah, SIFF 2008 Festival Director. Ambassador Anota expressed delight at the growing audience base of Philippine films in Singapore. Filipino films have of late also been shown commercially in select Singapore cinemas. With a report from Agence France Presse

ABS-CBN News

Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza brought his films “Foster Child” and “Tirador” to the 58 th Berlin International Film Festival (also known as the “Berlinale”, ongoing until February 17) fully aware that his films were scheduled for exhibition–but not part of the competition.

However, the positive responses from audiences and critics alike were enough to thrill the Filipino director.

“Hindi lang isa o dalawa ang screening sa isang araw. Nagdodoble-doble pa. Hanggang ngayon, ipinalalabas pa sa Berlin ang ‘Foster Child’ at ‘Tirador.’ I am very happy about the turnout,” he said.

(‘Foster Child’ and ‘Tirador’ are being screened twice, sometimes even thrice, a day. Until now, they are still being shown.)

“Foster Child” tells the story between a foster child and a foster mother who must face their imminent separation after the boy is formally adopted by an American couple.

“Tirador” is an urban saga about small-time crooks living in the tough, gritty underbelly of the City of Manila.

Mendoza returned to the Philippines before the end of the Berlinale to honor commitments to several projects.

“Pero may mga representatives ako ro’n. Sila ang nakikipag-negotiate sa commercial run ng mga pelikula. Marami ang nanghihinayang sa Germany na hindi nakasama sa competition ang mga pelikula. Pero okey lang. The mere fact that we were invited was meritorious enough,” said Mendoza.

(I have my representatives there. They are the ones tasked to negotiate regarding the commercial run of the films. There are many people in Germany who regret that my films in the competition section but it’s okay)

According to Mendoza, he did a lot of interviews for the press and his films received positive reviews in international newspapers that covered the Berlinale

“A lot of critics and buyers were saying so many good words about the films. Nakakataba talaga ng puso. (It’s heartwarming),” he said.

“Tirador” won in the Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco late last year.

Mendoza said that after a break, he’ll continue going around the festival circuit.

“Sa March, aalis ulit ako for international film festivals. (I am scheduled to attend other international film festivals in March).”

Mendoza is in the country for the pre-production of “Servando,” a film about a male prostitute. The movie stars Kristofer King, Coco Martin, Cherry Pie Picache, Gina Pareño, Mercedes Cabral and other respected actors.

The production of “Servando” is being funded by the Pusan International Film Festival and the Film Development Council of the Philippines.