Historical action drama Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo scooped the Movie of the Year plum at the glitzy Star Awards for Movies staged by the Philippine Movie Press Club last Sunday.
One of the biggest box office bombs of the previous year, the win was not a surprise for the Robin Padilla starrer. It also won the major awards at the Metro Manila Film Festival in December. It was like deja vu when it walked home with the Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editor, Best Production Design, Best Musical Score, Best Sound Engineering, and Best Original Theme Song awards.
Winners in the recent Star Awards for movies include Bonifacio with Robin Padilla, John Lloyd Cruz as Best Actor for The Trial and Nora Aunor as Best Actress for Dementia
The second most decorated film of the night was the Cinemalaya movie The Janitor. The action-thriller, which was released commercially in October, won five major awards in the indie section including Indie Movie of the Year, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editor and Best Sound Engineer.
Another unpopular movie, in terms of box office performance, performed well in this annual gathering of movie stars. John Lloyd Cruz won Best Actor as a mentally challenged man in The Trial. The film, released in October last year and earned around P50 million at the tills, won two more trophies – Sylvia Sanchez and Gretchen Barretto both bagged the Best Supporting Actress award.
In its 31-year history, the PMPC is very much consistent in giving out the same award to two nominees. Last Sunday was no exception. John Lloyd shared the Best Actor award with Piolo Pascual who won for his role in Starting Over Again. And Miggs Cuaderno, nominated Best Supporting Actor at the International Filmmakers Festival of World Cinema in London and won Best Actor at the 20th Chéries-Chéris Paris Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in France for Asintado, tied with Bimby Yap for his role in The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin 2 for the Movie Child Performer of the Year award.
It’s good to note that the PMPC members didn’t have the hard time in choosing the Best Actress winner this year. They all agreed that Nora Aunor deserved to be among the winners as Best Actress for Dementia.
VERY WANG 