And so it happened that for the first time, our Gawad Urian was held online on November 10.
For the first time, there were no winners to receive their respective trophies, no speeches. One thing did not change though, not from our perspective but from those who have constantly followed our decisions and our articulation of filmic standards—our choices.
There were, as usual, surprises. Pleasant surprises. These were rediscoveries in the persons of Janine Gutierrez for Best Actress and Elijah Canlas for Best Actor.
Gutierrez would win for her role in Rae Red’s Babae at Baril. The actress is, in the words of Gary Devilles, “an unnamed beleaguered saleslady.” All throughout his critique of the film, Mike Rapatan addresses the character essayed by Gutierrez as the “babae.” She becomes the everywoman, a sad and violated figure that could stand for all women, with or without the gun, raped bodily or abused in spirit.
Devilles does not directly talk about the performance of Gutierrez but explicates the complexity of the character of the woman: “In Babae at Baril, the woman and the gun constitute and poetically mirror each other, they are both considered as objects to be manipulated, controlled and dominated. But the woman and the gun have also exceeded their status as objects in the end; they can do things, have sufficient will to make a difference, produce effects, alter the course of their own stories.”
The power of the performance of Gutierrez can also be seen in a film that portrays a setting where “state violence is misogynistic, guns are considered phallic, women are always construed as lacking an ‘appendage’ in psychoanalysis.”
Indeed, performance, as we in the Manunuri always contend, has to be grounded within the body of the cinema in which the enactment of that person happens. Thus, Rapatan speaks of this year’s recipient of Best Actress by contextualizing the role first: “Janine Gutierrez delivers a nuanced performance that captures the shifting shades of Babae’s turmoil turning into understanding.” The same performance is further elucidated by the other elements of cinema: “The setting of Babae’s daily grind is made palpable by the interplay of Tey Clamor’s atmospheric cinematography and Eero Francisco’s gritty production design. Fatima Nerikka Salim and Immanuel Varona’s musical score intermittently punctuated by punchy percussions mixed with street sounds and sirens likewise projects the rough and tumble rhythm of Babae’s world. With Ilsa Malsi’s deft stitching of the characters’ disparate lives into a thought-provoking whole, Red is thus able to shape a narrative space where women can reclaim their agency in a world burdened and fractured by male privilege.
Babae is also this year’s recipient of the Gawad Urian for Best Picture. Rae Red wins the Gawad Urian for Best Director, bannering a year of women in cinema. The winning cinematographer and editor are women.
Kalel, 15 is the title of the film but it might as well be the other name of Elijah Canlas.
Of the film and the boy, Gigi Javier Alfonso speaks of “the story of Kalel, a young man who is adventurous, undecided and confused” who is “seen in the choices he takes, groping through the strands of poverty or lack of accountability of young reckless passion, the mind and spirit led by the arrogance of ignorance within life’s tapestry enveloped in the constructed murky reality of the people around him.”
Alfonso continues: “The film probes into Kalel’s life where no one seems to genuinely care beyond self. Where he sees that people’s survival is achieved by simple moments of pleasure from alcohol, a semblance of repetitive ritual of repentance around money used to lighten the burden of guilt, and the numbing ecstatic feel of drugs and sex. He is fathered by a priest, mothered by a man-hungry woman, has a horny sister. It talks about interpretations of love, lust, danger, anger and survival. A quick formula that will certainly lead him to an aimless and visionless way to pathetic destruction, or to survive with resilience, ending up with a hard, vengeful, and calloused soul.”
Do we really have children like Kalel? Are there mothers like the mother of Kalel, visibly uncaring but disturbing in what appears to be a lack of motherly instinct? For that small role, I became a fan of Jaclyn Jose. Her stoicism on-screen is a form of violence in itself.
There are more points I wish to share with readers as to what transpired during our deliberations, but this could wait for another column. I promise also to do a separate discussion of the winning documentary and short film. These are forms that are gaining a following and we consider them as significant cinematic modes.
We are happy with what transpired last Sunday, 22, when we had an online conversation with the Gawad Urian winners. It was a first in the history of Philippine cinema when critics created the opportunity to engage the winning filmmakers after they had delivered their acceptance speeches, albeit the event was online and not onstage.
The winners for Gawad Urian 2020:
- Best Picture: Babae at Baril
- Best Director: Rae Red for Babae at Baril
- Best Actress: Janine Gutierrez for Babae at Baril
- Best Actor: Elijah Canlas for Kalel, 15
- Best Supporting Actress: Yayo Aguila for Metamorphosis
- Best Supporting Actor: Kristoffer King for Verdict
- Best Screenplay: Jun R. Lana for Kalel, 15
- Best Cinematography: Tey Clamor for Babae at Baril
- Best Editing: Ilsa Malsi for Babae at Baril
- Best Production Design: Eero Yves Francisco for Babae at Baril
- Best Music: Jude Gitamondoc, Cattski and Cindy Velasquez for Huwebes Huwebes
- Best Sound: Mikko Quizon and John Michael Perez for Mañanita
- Besy Short Film: Carla Pulido Ocampo for Tokwifi
- Best Documentary: Miko Revereza for No Data Plan