(Eagle News) — A Filipino independent movie produced by the Iglesia Ni Cristo won the much-coveted “Best Film” award, as well as the “best cinematography in a foreign language film” in the recently concluded 2016 Madrid International Film Festival.
“Walang Take Two” (No Second Take), the first film produced by the Iglesia Ni Cristo’s INCinema productions, bested other top films from all over the world during the awarding ceremonies on Saturday night July 9. The film festival ran from July 2 to 9 in the Spanish capital.
The film’s cinematographer, Giancarlo Escamillas, was cited for the film’s cinematography during the awards ceremony.
The film’s director, Carlo Jay Ortega Cuevas, was also nominated as “best director in a foreign language feature film,” along with another Filpino director, Joel Lamangan.
The two major awards bagged by INCinema’s “Walang Take Two” in Madrid were the most recent international awards that this Philippine independent film received from international award-giving bodies. Before this, it won two major awards from the World Film Awards in Jakarta –the “Platinum World Award” for director Carlo Cuevas and the “World Newcomer Filmmaker of the year” — aside from being nominated in the Best Picture category.
Cuevas himself also bagged the London International Film Festival Award for best director in a foreign film early this year.
During the film’s run in Madrid, “Walang Take Two” was the film that had the most number of viewers as more than 300 people, mostly Filipinos, packed the 120-seating capacity viewing room in Madrid for its screening.
During the awarding ceremonies, those who received the awards in Madrid on behalf of the film’s organizers, thanked God for the acclaim given to the INC-produced film, and considered this as a great “blessing.
INC minister Pepito Acuesta, the INC minister-overseer for Europe, also thanked INC Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V. Manalo for his support and guidance to the film’s cast and crew who were composed of INC members who mostly had little or no experience in film-making.
He also thanked the filmfest organizers for “recognizing” the film during the film’s awarding ceremonies.
“Walang Take Two, ”written and directed by first-time film-maker Carlo Ortega Cuevas, was released in Philippine cinemas in September 2015.
The film revolves around the ambitious but poor young Filipino film-maker “Hapi” who wants to make it big as a first-time “indie” director and film maker. The twists in his life and those around him, punctuated with hilarious comedic situations and dramatic turn of events, are something which all audiences would appreciate.
The line “walang Take Two” or “there are no second takes” is what Hapi always hears from his father Mang Julian, a retired videographer. In his quest to find ways to produce his “indie film,” he painfully learns that he has to be careful in his decisions because there are choices one might make in life that can never be taken back –proving the wisdom behind his father’s usual quip that sometimes there are no second takes.
Surprisingly, the cast of the movie are all first-time actors and actresses whose acting skills were honed only through their participation in previous INCinema short film productions. The INCinema films are among the projects of the Iglesia Ni Cristo Church Administration to hone cinematic talents of INC members — not only in the Philippines but in other countries as well — who are interested in film-making.
The cast and those who did the film behind the scenes – from its director, cinematograper, scriptwriter to the actors and actresses featured in the film – were in fact all winners in the previous EVM awards of various INCinema productions which were held under the guidance of INC Executive Minister Bro. Eduardo V. Manalo.
(Eagle News Service)