Cebuano nabs Best Actor plum in 2014 Cinema One Originals

Angelica Panganiban was named Best Actress, while newbie actors Sandino Martin and Matt Daclan were chosen Best Actors, respectively at the Cinema One Originals.

The awards night, hosted by Piolo Pascual and Iza Calzado, was held Sunday night, November 16, at the Dolphy Theater.

Angelica won for her role as a heartbroken woman in the Antoinette Jadaone film “That Thing Called Tadhana,” beating Shamaine Buencamino who was nominated for “Lorna” and transgender actress Mimi Juareza who was nominated for “Seoul Mates.”

Angelica’s award was accepted on her behalf by Jadaone, since the actress is still on vacation abroad with boyfriend John Lloyd Cruz.

Declared winners of the best actor plum are Sandino Martin who played Cadet Abel Sarmiento in “Esprit de Corps,” a military corruption drama directed by Kanakan Balintagos; and Cebuano actor Matt Daclan for “Soap Opera” directed by Remtom Zuasola.

Both best actor winners were pleasantly surprised with their victories. Sandino dedicated his award to his family and to his colleagues in theater. He said he didn’t expect anything when he attended the awards night. In fact, his knees were shaking while he was onstage to accept his award.

“I accepted the role because I liked the story and even if there was some nudity involved, these were essential to the story,” he added.

Matt is a Cebu-based actor and was in Manila to attend the awards night. He was set to fly back to Cebu the day after the awards ceremonies. If we’re not mistaken, this is the first time in the history of Cinema One Originals that an entry from the Visayas won an acting award.

Maria Isabel Lopez was chosen best supporting actress for the feminist comedy film “Lorna” as one of the best friends of Buencamino, while stage actor Andy Bais won best supporting actor for “Violator.”

The erstwhile sexy actress said the first time she won an acting award, (Golden Screen Awards for “Kinatay”) it was for a role where she had to take off her clothes. Now, she won with her clothes on. The former Binibini said she was taking a video of her name being flashed as one of the nominees and was surprised to hear her name called as the winner.

“I am very happy and I would like to share this award with Shamaine (Buencamino) and Raquel (Villavicencio) because if not for them, I would not be good in my role,” said Maribel.

Andy Bais, who is also an avowed Noranian, was so suffused with excitement with his win that he could not muster a decent acceptance speech. All that he said while onstage was “Thank you.”

“Violator,” a horror-apocalyptic drama directed by Dodo Dayao, won the best picture award. The movie, which stars Joel Lamangan and Victor Neri, also bagged awards for best sound (Corinne de Jesus) and best editing (Lawrence Ang).

Kanakan Balintagos a.k.a. Aureaus Solito won the Best Director award for “Esprit de Corps.” The movie was based on a play he wrote when he was 17.

“I am the most senior among the directors who competed this year and it feels good to win kasi mahuhusay din naman ang iba pang director na sumali this year,” he said. He added that he was quite wary how the public will react to “Esprit de Corps” because of its subject matter and theme.

“Esprit de Corps” also picked up the award for best in production design for Hai Balbuena.

The other winners are Tengal (Best Music for “Hindi Sila Tatanda”), Aditya Kumar (Best Cinematography for “Bitukang Manok”), and Jay Abello and Dwight Gaston (Best Screenplay for “Red”).

Another big winner was filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone for her romance flick “That Thing Called Tadhana,” which won the Audience Choice Award and the special Champion Bughaw Award for Best Film. Both special awards come with cash prizes which she said she’ll use to pay for the hefty royalty fee for the Whitney Houston song “Where Do Broken Hearts Go.”

She also won the Biogesic Ingat na Damang-Dama Sine Serye special award for her short film “Ang Nanay Kong Noisy” and was among the 10 filmmakers who were honored with the Cinema One Originals Milestones achievement award for her 2011 feature film debut “Six Degrees of Separation From Lilia Cuntapay.”

Cebuano filmmaker Remton Zuasola was a recipient of the same Cinema One Originals Milestones achievement award for his 2010 critical hit “Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria.”

The jurors of the Cinema One Originals are festival programmer and film critic Paolo Bertolin, film critic Richard Bolisay, Urian best actress winner Angeli Bayani, film director Erik Matti, Cannes film festival programmer Benjamin Illos and film critic Tito Genova Valiente.

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Former “Star Circle Quest Kids” winner Nash Aguas is now a teenager. The public saw Nash grow before their eyes, from the little boy who regaled the audience with his acting talent, until he gained a following as a teen in the program “Luv U” where he is paired with Alexa Ilacad.

There is no question that Nash is a gifted actor so it did not come as a surprise that Dreamscape Entertainment decided to entrust him the lead role in the new TV series “Bagito” which started airing last Monday after “TV Patrol.”

“Bagito” is based on the Wattpad series written by Noreen Capili. In the series, Nash plays a teenager (Drew) who has to face the responsibility of being a teen dad because of a big mistake. The series also aims to show parents and kids how important it is to be guided well by their elders.

Also in “Bagito” are Ella Cruz, Agot Isidro, Ariel Rivera, Angel Aquino, Paolo Santiago, Alex Diaz, and the members of boy group Gimme 5 composed of Joaquin Reyes, John Bermundo, Grae Fernandez, and Brace Arquiza.