MANILA, Philippines -- Filmmakers and big-name stars gathered Thursday night in Ortigas for the 38th annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) Awards Night.
The 2012 MMFF recognized the eight participating film entries in the Mainstream category, as well as its New Wave and Short Film line-ups at the Meralco Theater.
Here is the full list of winners of the 38th MMFF:
Best Float: "El Presidente"
Youth Choice Award: "El Presidente"
Best Child Star: Miguel Vergara, "One More Try"
Best Sound: Michael Idioma, "El Presidente"
Best Musical Score: Jessie Lazatin, "El Presidente"
Best Theme Song: apl.de.ap and Jamir Garcia, "El Presidente"
Best Make-up: Warren Munar, "El Presidente" by Warren Munar and company.
Best Special Fffects: "Shake, Rattle & Roll 14: The Invasion"
Best Production Design: Brillante Mendoza, "Thy Womb"
Best Editing: Vito Kahili, "One More Try"
Best Cinematography: Odyssey Flores, "Thy Womb"
Best Supporting Actor: Cesar Montano, "El Presidente"
Best Supporting Actress: Wilma Doesnt, "Sisterakas"
Best Original Story: Henry Burgos, "Thy Womb"
Best Screenplay: Anna Ramos, "One More Try"
Best Director: Brillante Mendoza, "Thy Womb"
3rd Best Picture: "Sisterakas"
2nd Best Picture: "El Presidente"
Best Picture: "One More Try"
Best Actor: Dingdong Dantes, "One More Try"
Best Actress: Nora Aunor, "Thy Womb"
New Wave
New Wave Best Actor: Alan Paule, "Gayak"
New Wave Best Actress: Liza Diño, "In Nomine Matris"
New Wave Best Director: Tyrone Acierto, "The Grave Bandits"
New Wave Best Film: Tyrone Acierto's "The Grave Bandits."
New Wave Special Jury: Armando "Bing" Lao's "Ad Ignorantiam"
Special Awards
Gender Sensitivity Special Award (New Wave): "In Nomine Matris"
Gender Sensitivity Special Award (Mainstream): "Thy Womb"
Gender Sensitivity Special Award (Shorts): "Manibela"
FPJ Memorial Award: "One More Try"
Gatpuno Villegas Award: "Thy Womb"
Other Awards
Stars of the Night: Nora Aunor, former President Joseph Estrada
Untold Stories: Original 500-peso design bears the Marcos portrait Mr. Romeo Mananquil, the banknote’s designer himself, noted in his site that in the late 1985, his 500-peso Marcos bill was slated for production. However, when a snap election was scheduled, the circulation of the newly printed bills was put on hold in deference to the law against electioneering as Marcos. How I “Made Money” for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas My recollections of my personal story behind the redesigning of the Philippine bank notes and coins
by Romeo Castillo Mananquil as told to Isa I. Palanca (published in Celebrate magazine, Fall 2008, Toronto, Canada)
In 1982, while I was teaching at the UP College of Fine Arts, I received a phone call that led to a most important assignment in my life as an artist. I was asked to be a part of the team redesigning bank notes and coins for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, after an official saw a pencil portrait sketch I have done of Don Andres Soriano in a San Miguel Corporation. It was not difficult at all to say yes to the task. I was eager to be part of the numismatic history of my country and have my art on any one of the new notes or coins.
The design work was divided among the artists. With the new 500-peso bill, I was asked to do a portrait of then President Ferdinand Marcos. I decided to render a casual and relaxed portrait of Marcos on one side of the bill, while the other would feature an illustration of the Batasang Pambansa. However, after we had finished the first new design, the team that had originally been given the task was dissolved and I found myself having to form a new team. Though this momentarily stalled the project, it also gave mme the opportunity to handpick 2 artists who with me would make history. The new team was made up of myself, Angel Cacnio, a fellow magazine illustrator and painter and Rafael Asuncion, my former creative director at J. Walter Thompson Co. where I trained as a student in advertising.
We divided the assignment, sharing the design work for all the new coins and bills. My 500-peso Marcos bill was to be joined by my redesign of the 5-peso and 1000-peso bills, while Cacnio took the lead on the 20 and 100-peso bills as Asuncion worked on the 10 and 50-peso bills. Each artist submitted designs based on the guidelines provided to us by the BSP Numismatic Committee, who then approved which were to be used on the coins. My rendering of Andres Bonifacio and of a coconut tree were to appear on the 2-peso decagonal coin, while the 10-centavo coin would feature my renderings of the Pygmy Goby and Francisco Baltasar. My Tamaraw shared the 1-peso coin with Asuncion’s Jose Rizal while my Melchora Aquino was featured opposite Cacnio’s Waling-waling on the 5-centavo coin. Cacnio shared the design on the 50-centavo with Asuncion, his Marcelo del Pilar featured with Asuncion’s Philippine Eagle and on the 25-centavo, Cacnio’s Juan Luna joined Asuncion’s Philippine Butterfly. They also split the design on the 1-centavo coin; Cacnio contributing Lapu-lapu and Asuncion the Sea Shell on the reverse side. The 2-peso decagonal was launced in October 1983 and soon after the complete Flora and Fauna coin series was in earnest circulation.
Besides the design of the 500-peso bill, I also had the task of creating the designs for the 5-peso and 1000-peso bills. The prospect of a 1000-peso bill was certainly exciting for the Bangko Sentral as this was the premiere release of this denomination. Those who remember the 5-peso bill may still be familiar with the illustration of the occasion of the June 12, 1898 declaration of Philippine Independence. The republic’s first president – Gen. Emilio Agiunaldo waved the new flag of the Philippines from the balcony of his residence in Kawit, Cavite. While no known photograph of the occasion exists, the illustration I rendered for the bank note is perhaps the most familiar depiction of that most historic event. I relied heavily on history books, unpublished manuscripts, photographs of the military uniforms and fashions of the era to reconstruct the event and produce that scene. Although the 5-peso Aguinaldo bill has since been phased out and replaced by a coin, the illustration was reproduced for a commemorative 100,000-peso bank note to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the declaration of independence in 1898. That bill has the distincton of holding the Guinness world record for largest paper bill for a time.
The 500-peso Marcos bill was slated for production in late 1985. However, when a snap election was scheduled. The circulation of the newly printed bills was put on hold in deference to the law against electioneering as Marcos, whose image appeared on the new bank note was the incumbent running against Corazon Aquino. My 500-peso Marcos bill was never circulated and with the events that proceeded: the snap elections, the disputed victory of Marcos, the success of People’s Power in February 1986 and the instatement of Aquino as President, it perhaps seemed fitting that any vestiges of the overthrown government were thrown off. President Corazon Aquino soon ordered the redesign of the bill to honour her husband, Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino whose 1983 slaying became the catalyst for change and the new democracy’s rallying cry for the overthrow of Marcos. Though I was once again tasked with the redesign of the bill, my family’s move to Canda prevented me from taking on the assignment.
When I was asked to redesign the 1980’s series of Philippine bank notes and coins, I did not receive lucrative renumeration for the assignment. The value of the assignment lay more in the knowledge that my art would be accessible to virtually everyone in my home country who would use its currency. I feel honoured and privileged that Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike have seen my art and have been touched by my creative vision each time they look at one of my designs, an honour not many artists can claim. This is the real benefit, priceless and irreplaceable by no amount of money I will ever make in my lifetime.
ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, the country’s leading and largest multimedia conglomerate, announced the appointment of Ma. Rosario “Charo” Santos-Concio as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective January 1, 2013. The new position is in addition to her role as the company’s President and Chief Content Officer. Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III continues to be the Chairman of the Board of ABS-CBN.
As ABS-CBN President, Santos-Concio conceptualized strategies and solutions for the company’s growth, helping it achieve profit margins, record-high advertising revenues, and leadership in nationwide TV ratings.
It was also during Santos-Concio’s term that the network was named as one of the top 15 highest scoring companies and the only publicly listed media organization to garner a score for 90% or higher in the Institute of Corporate Directors’ 2008 Corporate Governance Scorecard.
Before being promoted to President in 2008, she served as ABS-CBN’s Head for Channel 2 in 2006, Executive Vice President in 1998, Senior Vice President of TV Production in 1996, Vice President of Production Operations in 1991, and Director for Programs in 1989. She joined ABS-CBN as Consultant in 1987.
As a programming executive and producer, she is credited with ABS-CBN’s leadership in the TV and movie market with top-rating Kapamilya programs and high-grossing films under her helm, such as “Esperanza”, “Pangako Sa ‘Yo”, and “May Bukas Pa”, the sitcom “Home Along Da Riles” that revived the King of Comedy Dolphy’s career, and Star Cinema’s quality movies that broke box-office records.
Santos-Concio is a recipient of many awards for her work and contribution to the film and broadcast industry, including Film Academy of the Philippines’ Manuel de Leon Award, Hall of Fame Awards for her long-running drama anthology “Maalaala Mo Kaya” from the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), PMPC Star and Anak TV Awards, CEO Communication Excellence in Organizations (CEO EXCEL) Awards, and CMO Awards’ Woman Super Achiever Award.
She began her career in media as a production assistant in “John en Marsha”, then moved on to become a drama actress and producer for BanCom Audiovision, Experimental Cinema of the Philippines, Vanguard Films, Regal Films, and Vision Exponents.
Before becoming a media executive, Santos-Concio became famous for acting in critically acclaimed films, most notably in “Brutal”, “Kisapmata”, “Gumapang Ka sa Lusak” and Mike de Leon’s “Itim”, for which she won the Best Actress award in the 1978 Asian Film Festival.
She graduated cum laude from St. Paul’s College in Manila with a degree in Communications Arts and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2007.
The Most Unbelievable Meteor Showers of All GEMINID MULTI-COLORED METEOR SHOWERS
Beginning in early December, the Geminid meteor shower grows in intensity to finally reach its zenith on the night of December 13 and continue overnight into
the early morning hours. The predicted peak is just after midnight on December 14, 2012.
The most reliable meteor shower of the year, the Geminids are characterized by their multi-colored display--65% being white, 26% yellow, and the remaining 9% blue, red and green. They come in at a moderate speed of 21.75 miles per second, therefore they are bright and often produce fireballs. They radiate point is near Gemini’s bright twins, Castor and Pollux.
TIP: Start watching the Geminids by 9 or 10 p.m. local time. The peak might be around 2 a.m. local time on these nights. Geminid shower, often producing 50-60 or more meteors per hour.
While it looked like new American Idol judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj had made peace after a video surfaced of Minaj complaining about her co-star, Nicki has now taken to Twitter to rant about Carey. Fake peace is ovah.
Nicki refers to Carey as a ‘Shady McGrady’ in one of her tweets, saying that the multiple Grammy-winner shouldn’t have to give a run-down of her resume to impress people.
This morning Mariah Carey told Barbara Walters that she hired extra security after multiple sources say they overheard Minaj threatening Mariah’s life, information Walters shared with her viewers on The View. Nicki responded on her Twitter account, saying “I don’t call tmz n Barbara Walters cuz I stand on my own two feet. Never needed an army. God is good. Insecurity is as cruel as the grave.” So ya, this year’s American Idol ratings should be off the chart. Well played.
That was the message the Knicks sent on Tuesday when they decided not to match Jeremy Lin's three-year, $25.1 million offer sheet from the Rockets.
The team announced its decision on Tuesday night, confirming several reports that surfaced over the weekend stating the Knicks would not match Lin's offer.
"Much love and thankfulness to the Knicks and New York for your support this past year...easily the best year of my life #ForeverGrateful," Lin tweeted Tuesday night.
"Extremely excited and honored to be a Houston Rocket again!! #RedNation," Lin added in another tweet.
A source close to Lin said that, despite the diplomatic tweets, he will use the Knicks' decision as motivation in his next stop.
"Any slight or disrespect he will milk for all it's worth," the source told ESPNNewYork.com. "He's going to be motivated."
Before reports surfaced that the Knicks would not match the Rockets' offer to Lin, he "never considered" that he wouldn't be back in New York, according the source.
The Knicks also stated publicly after the season that they had every intention of bringing Lin back.
But New York's thinking changed when Lin signed his offer sheet with Houston.
Original reports stated that the Rockets' offer to Lin was for four years and $28.8 million, with the third and fourth years for $9.3 million each.
But the offer Lin signed was for $25 million over three years and was backloaded in the final season.
A team source told ESPNNewYork.com earlier this week that the third year of the Rockets' offer -- worth $14.8 million -- caused the Knicks to consider letting Lin go. If the Knicks matched the offer, they would have been subject to a luxury tax in the third year, potentially bringing their total out-of-pocket cost for the team's salary to about $43 million in 2014-15.
The Rockets' offer to Lin will pay him $5 million in the first year, $5.225 million in the second and $14.8 million in the third, according to sources.
The Knicks will now turn to Raymond Felton at point guard. Felton was acquired in a sign-and-trade announced on Monday.
While the Knicks announced their decision on Lin late Tuesday night, they made their intentions clear last Saturday when they agreed on a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers to bring Felton back to New York.
A source close to Felton said that he wouldn't have come to New York to play behind Lin.
"He loves New York, but he wouldn't have agreed to come back to sit on the bench," the source said.
With Lin out, Felton will start and the 39-year-old Jason Kidd will serve as his backup for the Knicks.
The team's decision to cut ties with Lin ends his brief but unforgettable run in New York.
The 23-year-old averaged 14.6 points, 6.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 35 games with 25 starts before his season was cut short because of surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee.
Lin tried to rejoin the Knicks during the playoffs, but wasn't able to play. He declared himself "85 percent" healthy before Game 5 of the Knicks-Heat series but did not suit up. According to a team source, that caused friction in the locker room.
"Other guys were hurt, playing at less than 85 percent, so some of them didn't like that," said the source.
But in the 35 games he was healthy, Lin went from an end-of-the-bench afterthought to an international phenomenon.
The undrafted guard out of Harvard, cut twice in the preseason (once by the Rockets) and played in the D-League, set the league on fire in February, leading the Knicks to seven consecutive wins. He scored at least 20 points in nine of 10 games during that stretch.
Lin, a restricted free agent, made $788,000 last season.
Ian Begley is a regular contributor to ESPNNewYork.com.
LOS ANGELES - Paramedics were called after Lindsay Lohan was found unconscious in a hotel near Los Angeles on Friday, local media reported, but emergency services said she was not taken to hospital.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department said paramedics were called to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey mid-morning after a 911 call about an unconscious person, but could not confirm it was Lohan.
ABC television local affiliate KABC reported that Lohan, who is currently filming a television movie about Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor's stormy romance with Richard Burton, was found in the penthouse of the hotel.
It said she was taken to hospital, but the Fire Department could not confirm the report.
Celebrity news website TMZ meanwhile reported that Lohan had been working for two days almost non-stop, including shooting parts of the movie near the hotel.
She was found "non-responsive." Paramedics responded, and determined nothing was wrong with Lindsay, TMZ reported.
The 25-year-old last week spent two hours undergoing tests in hospital after an accident that saw the car she was reportedly driving smash into an 18-wheel big rig on the Pacific Coast Highway, west of Los Angeles.
The TV movie "Liz and Dick" role is a break for Lohan, who after a promising early start has become known chiefly as a hell-raising celebrity with substance abuse problems and frequent brushes with the law.
In March, an LA judge formally ended Lohan's probation after a long string of court appearances, but told the "The Parent Trap" and "Freaky Friday" star to "stop the nightclubbing" and behave more maturely.
For more news updates, follow me on Twitter:@PrinceYuan18
Before Wednesday, very few people would have recognized the name Luka Rocco Magnotta.
It wasn't being uttered at dinner tables, or splashed across the front pages of newspapers, and it certainly didn't conjure horrible images of bloody crime scenes or dismembered body parts.
Despite this, however, the man behind that name had found a modicum of Internet fame over the past several years; although perhaps not the kind he was hoping for.
Luka Rocco Magnotta's digital footprints, some allegedly left by the 29-year-old himself and others created by a select group of people from all over the globe who have long believed him to be dangerous, are ubiquitous, often bizarre and sometimes disturbing.
A quick Google search of "Luka Rocco Magnotta" turns up links to chat rooms, Facebook pages, pornographic imagery, YouTube videos, a personal web-site and even an (unverified @Luka_Magnotta) Twitter account - all connected to the man who seems to have taken on multiple personas and names as he struggled to build a career as a gay porn star and then became the subject of an international campaign to have him thrown in jail.
A group of people who have spent over a year using Face-book to attempt to track him down and hand him over to police named Magnotta "the kitten vacuumer."
Animal rights activists around the world mobilized beginning in 2010 to identify him after a video surfaced allegedly showing Magnotta placing two kittens in a plastic bag and then vacuuming the air out, suffocating the animals. Two more videos, also depicting the torture and killing of cats, have also been linked to Magnotta. At one point, a $5,000 reward was offered to bring him to justice.
On Wednesday, as Magnotta's digital legacy became the subject of intense scrutiny, the administrators of a Facebook group dubbed "Find the Kitten Vacuumer for Great Justice" released a statement.
"We are patiently waiting for more information on the case and have faith in the Montreal police," it reads. "Members of this group have spent over a year searching for this individual ... Information gathered by group members was passed onto the authorities in Canada, and we were informed that they were actively working on locating the person seen in the videos hurting animals."
The administrators said they would not be commenting further while the investigation is ongoing.
The exhaustive online efforts to locate Magnotta may have fuelled some of his own alleged Internet writings, in which he defends his reputation and complains about "cyber stalking" and "media propaganda."
"I do not feel the necessity to address the specific accusations made in the posts since they are so far from my character that responding to them will give them more credibility than they will ever hold," reads a post on his website Luka-Magnotta.net.
The square-jawed but some-what effeminate Magnotta, who often appears semi-nude or nude in online photos, has also claimed that others were impersonating him on the Internet, and that "hoax websites are created using my image and name, posing as me to seem more believable in respect to the type of audience these website have."
In an article on another site purporting to be an interview with Magnotta, the self-styled male model is described as "a James Dean lover and had cosmetic surgery to look like his idol." The piece claims he had to change his appearance and was nervous to answer his door and phone. Yet another bizarre article, allegedly written by Magnotta himself, describes a six-step process for vanishing and shedding one's former identity.
Magnotta has repeatedly complained online about "lies" linking him romantically to infamous schoolgirl killer Karla Hom-olka, who was released without conditions in 2005. On Wednesday, Montreal police said that the two had indeed dated.
A post on Magnotta's personal Facebook page, meanwhile, reads simply: "Monsters, Demons and Ghosts, they live in-side of us and they are real, and sometimes they win."
mmuise@ montrealgazette.com
Allison Hanes and the ottawa citizen contributed to this report
UPDATE: Chinese student Lin Jun, 33, falls prey to body-parts killer Luka Rocco Magnotta
Victim: Lin Jun, 33, was a Chinese student who had moved to Montreal to study. He dated Magnotta.
Sick: An image from a gruesome video of the killing, which has been
blurred by MailOnline, shows the victim
Man hunt: Police are searching for Canadian porn star Luka Magnotta, left, after he allegedly hacked a man to death and posted his body parts to Canadian offices. The victim has been identified as Jun Lin, right
Montreal police on Friday identified Lin Jun, a 33-year-old Chinese student at Montreal's Concordia University, as the victim of suspected body-parts killer Luka Rocco Magnotta, now on Interpol's wanted-persons list.
Lin, who was born in Wuhan, capital of the central China's Hubei Province, arrived in Montreal last July to begin his studies. A missing person's report posted on the Montreal Chinese consulate- general's Chinese-language website said friends and family had lost contact with Lin on May 24 -- around the same time police believe Magnotta killed a man inside his second-floor apartment in west-end Montreal.
A headless, limbless torso was discovered in a suitcase not far from the rundown apartment building on Tuesday, the same day parts of the same body (a hand and a foot) were mailed to two of Canada' s major political parties in Ottawa.
Montreal police said Lin knew Magnotta, and there are reports the two men dated.
Magnotta, a 29-year-old, Toronto-born onetime gay model, escort, stripper and porn actor, faces charges of first-degree murder and committing an indignity to human remains.
The Chinese consulate-general in Montreal issued a French- language statement Friday condemning the murderer who committed a "horrible and hateful crime using exceptionally cruel methods with extremely harmful effects," while extending its deepest condolences and sympathy to Lin's family as it is trying to bring his relatives to Montreal.
The Chinese consulate also reiterated what police have said about the case not involving organized crime targeting a particular ethnic group, but still called on Chinese citizens and students in Montreal to be vigilant.
Police believe a 10-minute online "1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick" video featuring the New Order song "True Faith" used in the 2000 horror film, American Psycho, and posted on the Edmonton-based "Best Gore" website on May 25, showing a man using an ice pick to kill what appears to be an Asian man and later dismembering, sexually defiling and seemingly cannibalizing the body constitutes videotaped evidence of the grisly murder.
Montreal police said Magnotta flew out of Montreal on May 26 and is believed to be in France. However, Montreal police warned the slender and boyish-looking suspect, who changed his name from Eric Clinton Newman and also goes by the name of Vladimir Romanov, could have disguised himself as a woman and be wearing a wig -- an accessory his Montreal neighbors had often seen him don.
Meanwhile, Britain's tabloid, The Sun, referred on Friday to encounters its reporters had with the "baby-faced weirdo" last December after the newspaper ran a story about online footage of kittens being suffocated and fed to a python. Magnotta, who has been linked to the videotaped acts of animal cruelty, showed up unannounced at The Sun's London offices to deny he was responsible.
Soon afterward, the newspaper received an email believed to be from Magnotta, which read "next time you hear from me it will be in a movie I am producing, that will have some humans in it, not just pussys [sic]," with a smiley face attached. "Once you kill, and taste blood, its [sic] impossible to stop."
The Sun said it contacted Scotland Yard about the python-eating- kitten video and the email message, but were told by London police that the case was "outside their jurisdiction."
On Thursday, Interpol issued a Red Notice for Magnotta, whom Montreal police have described as 1.78 meters in height, weighing 61 kg, with black hair and blue eyes, which has been circulated in Arabic, English, French and Spanish to its 190 member countries.
In 2005, Magnotta was convicted of fraud in Canada. On Friday, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported that he was also previously accused, under his birth name of Eric Clinton Newman, of stealing 17,000 Canadian dollars (about 16,400 U.S. dollars) from a woman and sexually assaulting her.
UPDATE: Luka Rocco Magnotta’s arrest caught on camera in Berlin
This image taken from CCTV obtained by Associated Press video shows Luka Rocco Magnotta, 2nd left, being removed by police from the Internet cafe in the district of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Monday, June 4, 2012.
Fittingly, the arrest of Luka Rocco Magnotta, the Canadian accused in the horrific Montreal murder and decapitation of a Chinese student, which he allegedly filmed and posted online, was caught by surveillance cameras in Berlin.
Magnotta, the man dubbed “Canadian Psycho,” surrendered meekly to Berlin police saying, “You got me,” after spending over an hour in an Internet café reading about himself Monday afternoon local time.
The surveillance footage from inside the Internet café, obtained by The Associated Press, show Magnotta strolling casually into the café at about noon local time in jeans, a green hoodie and wearing sunglasses.
Unlike footage taken only days before in airport security where he had dark, medium-length hair, he was sporting a short, blonde haircut.
In the video, he speaks shortly to the Internet café’s desk person, before walking to his assigned computer, where witnesses would see him reading news coverage about himself.
People and journalists gather outside of the Internet Cafe in the Neukoeln district of Berlin, on June 4, 2012 where Luka Rocco Magnotta dubbed the "Canadian Psycho," who is suspected of killing and filming the dismemberment his boyfriend, a Chinese student, was arrested earlier by German police.
About an hour and a half later, seven Berlin police officers — acting on a tip for a café employee — walk into the shop calmly.
Minutes later, three officers walk Magnotta out of the café, his arms handcuffed behind his back.
“He tried to give a false name. When he realized that he couldn’t escape the situation, he said, ‘You’ve got me,’” Berlin police told the National Post.
