It's always good to hear homegrown actors and directors getting recognition at film festivals abroad. But it's sad that we don't appreciate the kinds of films these talented directors have to offer. Our local movie industry will remain in the dumps as long as we patronize movies such as Enteng Kabisote, the 100th sequel, Mano Po, Part 1,000, etc.
Full story below.
Filipino director Brillante Mendoza won as Best Director at the 62nd edition of the Cannes International Film Festival in France. Brillante Mendoza won over renowned filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) and Ang Lee (Taking Woodstock) for the said category.
Mendoza is the first Filipino to win Best Director at Cannes for a full-length film. Mendoza made his debut at Cannes last year with Serbis, which was also In Competition.
The director won for the crime film "Kinatay" (The Execution of P), which tells the grisly fate of a kidnap-rape victim (played by Maria Isabel Lopez) who is beaten up before she is murdered and hacked to pieces.
It is interesting to note that Filipina actress Mercedes Cabral played important roles in two award-winning films in Cannes. She was handpicked to portray a Filipina married to a Korean in the vampire film Bak-Jwi and she played the wife of Coco Martin in Kinatay.
In the Un Certain Regard section, the film Police Adjective of Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania) took the top jury prize. Raya Martin's Independencia, a historical drama starring Sid Lucero and Tetchie Agbayani, is the Philippines' first entry to this section.
Adolfo Alix Jr. and Raya Martin's Manila, starring Piolo Pascual, was one of ten films given a special screening but it did not compete in Cannes.
Aside from the aforementioned three full-length Filipino films, two short films also participated in Cannes 2009. These are: Sabongero directed by Filipino-American Janice Perez and the animated short Manong Maong helmed by Aissa Peñafiel and Miguel Ocampo.
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