Jay is Cinemalaya’s best

By Nickie Wang /Manila Standard Today
24 July 2008

“Assistant director lang po ako ng Diyos [I’m just God’s assistant director],” young director Francis Pasion said in his acceptance speech after Jay, the video he directed, was named Best Film (a misnomer considering it hasn’t even been converted to 35mm film) in the full-length category during the festival’s awards night held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Sunday.

Furthermore, the director explained that there were scenes that happened unexpectedly that (possibly) contributed to the success of the film.

Jay, a story about a gay TV producer documenting the family of a gay hate crime victim who happens to be his namesake walked away with two other awards including Best Editing and Best Actor for Baron Geisler.

After nine days of successful screening, drawing a larger audience this year, most of the awards were expected including this year’s Best Director Chris Martinez who had more than one trophy to flaunt. 100, a flick that chronicles the last three months of a cancer stricken woman who has a list of things to do before she dies (shades of Bucket List, huh!), won the Audience Choice Award, the technical award for Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress for Eugene Domingo, and Best Actress for Mylene Dizon.

Early favorite Brutus by Tara Illenberger, which tells a story of two Mangyan kids hired by illegal loggers to smuggle wood from the mountains of Mindoro, received the Special Jury Prize and the Best Supporting Actor Award for Yul Servo.

The jury who made critical decisions to come up with fair picks was headed by French critic Max Tessier, Kim Ji-Seok of Pusan, Ansgar Vogt of Berlin, Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino member and a professor at University of Santo Tomas Lito Zulueta, and actor Cesar Montano.
The technical awards given out were: Best Sound Design (Allan Hilado, Ranchero), Best Musical Score (Joey Ayala, Brutus), Best Production Design (Cristina Honrado, Baby Angelo), and Best Cinematography which Jay Abello (Brutus) and Dan Villegas (Huling Pasada) shared.

As festival finalists, the 10 full-length films received an initial seed investment of P500,000 from Econolink Investments Inc. The final winning entry, Jay, directed by Chris Martinez, was given an additional grant of P200,000. The winner in the short film category walked home with a P100,000 grant plus a trophy.

Short feature films

Actress Angel Aquino, who was the host of the event, had her share of limelight. From being adjudged Cinemalaya Best Actress in 2006, the short film God Only Knows directed by Mark V. Reyes in which the actor/model also starred received the Audience Choice Award and the Best Director trophy. But the real crowd drawer was Andong by Milo Tolentino.

Andong was cited for its “devoted and humorous look at a boy’s obsessions.” It won the Best Short Film and the award for Best Original Screenplay.

This year’s Special Jury Award went to My Pet by Anna Bigornia, while the Special Jury Citation was given to Angan-angan, directed by Sheron Dayoc.