UP Honors Vi - "...The University of the Philippines Film Institute honors Gov. Vilma Santos with the screening of three of her acclaimed movies restored in high definition: “Anak” directed by Rory Quintos, “Kapag Langit ang Humatol” by Laurice Guillen and “Bata, Bata Paano Ka Ginawa” by Chito Rono. UP Film Institute Head Nonoy Lauzon announces: “For UP Diliman Month, coinciding with the National Arts Month, UP Film Institute celebrates the Vi that stands for Victory for All Seasons, Ate Vi times 3. This is in honor of Philippine cinema and popular culture’s true artist for a sovereign and empowered nation, Vilma Santos – the first UP Gawad Plaridel Awardee for Film and Recipient of UP Film Institute’s Diwata Award for Distinguished Achievement in Women’s Cinema.” The movies will be screened at UP Film Institute on February 5, Thursday: “Anak” at 2:30 PM, “Kapag Langit” at 5 PM and “Bata, Bata” at 7:30 PM. For inquiries, get in touch with UP Film Institute at filminstitute.upd.edu.ph or tel: 9262722; 9263640. This is in cooperation with the UP College of Mass Communication, ABS-CBN Film Restoration, UP Center For Women's Studies The National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Philippine Commission on Women..." - Mario Bautista, Showbiz Portal, 25 January 2015 (READ MORE)
Plot Description: - "...A mother in anguish makes a last-ditch effort to piece back together the broken fragments of her shattered family. After ten years of working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong, she comes home to Manila but not to be greeted with a joyful reunion with her loved ones. She longs for her late husband who was kind and loving but not a good provider. Her firstborn has run wild for lack of guidance. Her only son is in deep trouble in school. Her youngest doesn’t even recognize her. She comes to realize that her children harbor resentment toward her as she left for abroad despite pleas for her not to and for the crucial fact that she missed their father’s funeral five years ago. Despite all indications to the contrary, she is determined to overcome all hindrances to still succeed in her maternal role..." - UP Shots 6 Film Artists from Diliman (READ MORE)
Film Achievement:
- Philippines’ Official Entry to the Foreign Language Film Category to 73rd Academy Awards (OSCAR)
- Philippines’ Official Entry to the 2001 Fukuoka Asian Film Festival
- Philippines’ Official Entry to the 2001 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
- Philippines’ Official Entry to the 2001 San Francisco Asian American Film Festival
- 2000 Philippine Movie Press Club STAR Awards Best Actress – Vilma Santos
- 2000 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Screenplay – Ricardo Lee, Raymond Lee
- 2000 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Supporting Actress – Amy Austria
- 2000 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Actress nomination – Vilma Santos
- 2000 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Picture nomination – Star Cinema
- 2000 Catholic Mass Media Awards Best Picture – Star Cinema
- 2000 PASADO Best Picture – Star Cinema
- 2000 PASADO Best Actress – Vilma Santos
- 2000 GMMSF Box Office Queen – Vilma Santos
- 2000 Gawad Urian Best Actress nomination – Vilma Santos
- 2000 Gawad Urian Best Supporting Actor nomination – Baron Geisler
- 2000 Film Ratings Board – Rated B
- Record-breaking box office revenue of 2000 - 160 Million
- The 2014 Cinema One Originals Film Festival – Digitally Restored Selection
- Special Selection – 5th Philippine Film Festival 2014 (Hong Kong)
Film Review: - "...A topical dilemma for Filipinas — whether to take lucrative long-term jobs abroad and provide for their families’ future or stay home and play a more active role in their children’s lives — propels “Anak”, femme helmer Rory B. Quintos’ seventh feature. Vivid hook for domestic conflict makes this well-acted drama compelling until hitherto restrained approach succumbs to bathos in the last quarter. Offshore, best prospects outside fest circuit lie in TV sales. Bubbly, indomitable Josie (Vilma Santos) is thrilled to be returning home at last, having spent several years as a live-in nanny for Hong Kong yuppies — and enduring some serious mistreatment in that capacity. Loaded with presents and savings to invest in a business scheme, she gets a big welcome from everyone but her own children. Latter three have grown up without her, suffering especially since their father died in a workplace accident. While little Daday (Shiela May Alvero) and teenage Michael (Baron Geisler) soon get over their initial awkwardness, eldest offspring Carla (Claudine Barretto) remains bitterly resentful toward mom’s perceived abandonment. She goads Josie with serial boyfriends and open hostility before running away, straight into drug-abusive squalor. Limning complex emotions with subtlety and humor, pic resists melodrama until the dam abruptly burst after 90 minutes; ill-judged pileup of crying scenes, plot crises and more crying ensues. Josie’s final decision to leave for H.K. once again makes little sense, beyond its providing an excuse for “Anak’s” fourth hysterical-sobbing-at-the-airport sequence. That’s too bad, since early reels observe parent-child relationships with considerable delicacy. Quintos’ fluid handling of potentially claustrophobic, mawkish material underplays script’s more obvious gambits until they overwhelm pic. Veteran local star Santos is in fine form, while Barretto lends impressive shading to what might have been a stock sexy “bad girl” role. Tech package is polished..." - Dennis Harvey, Variety Magazine, 19 March 2001 (READ MORE)
“Kapag Langit ang Humatol” 5:00PM, Thursday Feb 5 - directed by Laurice Guillen (READ MORE)
Plot Description: - "...An oppressed housemaid has transformed herself into a wealthy and powerful business mogul through sheer dint of talent, ambition and driving need to avenge herself on her tormentors. She comes back to the scene of her most abject debasement with the sole intent of humiliating the family who once made her life such a living hell. Unknowingly, she gets to exact revenge on the very person who turns out to be her own daughter by the son of her former mistress..." - Database of Philippine Movies (READ MORE)
Film Achievement:
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Direction – Laurice Guillen
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Editing – Efren Jarlego
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Cinematography – Romeo Vitug
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Actress Nomination – Vilma Santos
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Picture Nomination – Vision Films
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Production Design Nomination – Edgar Martin Littaua
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Screenplay Nomination – Emmanuel H. Borlaza, Salvador Royales
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Supporting Actress Nomination – Kristine Garcia
- 1990 Gawad Urian Best Supporting Actress Nomination – Carmina Villaroel
- 1990 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Cinematography – Romeo Vitug
- 1990 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Story Adaptation – Emmanuel H. Borlaza, Salvador Royales
- 1990 FAMAS Best Child Actor Nomination – Terence Baylon
- 1990 FAMAS Best Supporting Actor Nomination – Jeffrey Santos
- The 2014 Cinema One Originals Film Festival – Digitally Restored Selection
Film Review: - "...director Laurice Guillen has more faith in her material, more respect. For she has not only come up with a beautifully-photographed, well-edited and generally superbly-acted melodrama. She has also held up to us a mirror of the dreams and aspirations, the frustrations, suffer¬ing and uncomplicated lifestyle of the so-called masa. Moments of the heroine’s unmitigated oppres¬sion in the hands of her evil mistress is age-old reality in Philippine life and, quite logically, litera¬ture. Her soul nearly scarred by her excruciating, degrading experience, she somehow manages not only to survive but also to rise from her humble, bleak origins, when she leaves the hellhole and finds hope and rewards in the city. In true melodramatic fashion, she plots out her revenge, but alas, even in carrying it out, she must pay dearly, nearly tragically. Feminist observers may easily notice that in this picture – as in, they would say, Philippine society -it is the women who run things. They domineer and dominate, manipulating the men, even the men they love. True enough, from the very beginning, it is the mistress and her poor servant who move things, decide, and tell men what to do. It is they who plot out schemes and plan their destiny. The same is true even with the minor characters, those played by Kristine Garcia (who virtually drags the farm stud into a stormy affair and pushes him to run away with her), Eula Valdez (who pulls the trigger that ends a chapter in the drama), Charo Santos (the single mother and self-made tycoon) and Carmina Villarroel (the young woman who tries to extricate herself from the mess which her quarreling mother and grandmother have created). For their part, the men are pushed around, fooled and overtaken by events: the weakling lover (Gomez), the perpetually horny stablehand (William Lorenzo) and the young and rich heir (Jeffrey Santos). All in all, it is a glossy and well-crafted movie, with marvelous performances by Ms. Santos and Ms. Romero..." - Mario A. Hernando, Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (READ MORE)
“Bata, Bata Paano Ka Ginawa” 7:30PM, Thursday Feb 5 - directed by Chito Roño (READ MORE)
Plot Description: - "...The movie is about Lea, a mother of two kids with different fathers. Lea, works in an NGO (non-government organization), which deals with human rights violation committed against women. Ogie and Maya are Lea’s children. Ogie’s father, Raffy, leaves them when he had to work in the province of Surigao. Lea together with his son Ogie, did not join Raffy for Lea has a job in Manila which she did not want to leave. Maya, whose father is Ding lives with them, together with Ogie. Things start to get worse when Raffy arrives in Manila. Raffy, meets with Lea for him to see his son, Ogie. As days went on, Ogie regularly sees his father and sometimes spends some time in his house together with his new wife who is pregnant with there first child. Raffy, realizes that he has a lot of shortcomings as a father to Ogie. Raffy tells Lea that he will take Ogie with him to the United States after his wife gives birth. Lea doesn’t know what to do..." - Skynet (READ MORE)
Film Achievement:
- 1999 Brussels International Festival of Independent Films Best Actress – Vilma Santos
- 1999 International Festival of Independent Films Best Director – Chito S. Roño
- 1999 Asia-Pacific Film Festival Special Jury Award – Chito S. Roño
- 1998 FAMAS Best Child Actor – Carlo Aquino
- 1998 FAMAS Best Child Actress – Serena Dalrymple
- 1998 FAMAS Best Story – Lualhati Bautista
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Actress – Vilma Santos
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Picture – Star Cinema
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Supporting Actor – Carlo Aquino
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Supporting Actress – Serena Dalrymple
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Actress – Vilma Santos
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Picture – Star Cinema
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Best Screenplay – Lualhati Bautista
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Supporting Actress – Serena Dalrymple
- 1998 Philippine Movie Press Club STAR Awards Actress of the Year – Vilma Santos
- 1998 Philippine Movie Press Club STAR Awards Child Performer of the Year – Carlo Aquino
- 1998 Philippine Movie Press Club STAR Awards New Movie Actress of the Year – Serena Dalrymple
- 1998 Young Critics Circle Best Film – Star Cinema
- 1998 Young Critics Circle Best Performer – Vilma Santos
- 1998 Young Critics Circle Best Screenplay – Lualhati Bautista
- 1998 PASADO Best Picture – Star Cinema
- 1998 PASADO Best Screenplay – Lualhati Bautista
- 1998 PASADO Best Actress – Vilma Santos
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Cinematography nomination – Charlie Peralta
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Director nomination – Chito S. Roño
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Editing nomination – Jaime Davila
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Production Design nomination – Manny Morfe
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Screenplay nomination – Lualhati Bautista
- 1998 Film Academy of the Philippines' Luna Awards Best Supporting Actor nomination – Albert Martinez
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Best Director nomination – Chito S. Roño
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Best Editing nomination – Jaime Davila
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Music nomination – Jessie Lasaten
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Sound nomination – Albert Michael Idioma
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Supporting Actor nomination – Carlo Aquino
- 1998 Gawad Urian Best Supporting Actor nomination – Raymond Bagatsing
- Bata Bata Paano Ka Ginawa became a stage play in 1999
Film Review: - "...In one of the most remarkable performances in Filipino film history, Vilma Santos plays Lea, a woman who defiantly rejects social convention to experience life on her own terms. A woman’s rights activist and mother of two, Lea has been abandoned by the fathers of her children. Her daughter and son are at crucial, transitional ages and she struggles to provide for them while maintaining her hectic job at a women’s crisis center. Soon, however, the job and her budding romance with co-worker Johnny threaten Lea’s role as mother. When the children’s fathers turn up to accuse her of neglect, she must ask herself whether her independence is worth the possibility of losing her children? What role–motherhood or lover–will best satisfy the deepest needs of her soul?..." - The 35th Chicago International Film Festival (READ MORE)
Related Reading:
- Vilma, ‘Ani ng Dangal’ ng NCCA
- Tatlong pelikula ni Vilma, ipapalabas ng UP Film Institute
- Rory Quintos On The Challenge Of Directing "Anak"
- Cinema One Originals turns ‘intense’
- Pinoy Film Focus: Bata, Bata...Paano Ka Ginawa? (1998)
- Highlights of Vilma’s ‘golden’ filmography
- Indie bug bites Ate Vi
- The U.P. Film Institute Honors Gov. Vilma Santos With A Retrospective Of Three Of Her Acclaimed Films Restored In High Definition