A STORY about a boxer who finds the meaning of life through boxing won Best Short Film in this year’s Sinulog Film Festival.
The film “Ginhawa” directed by Christian Paolo Lat also won the Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design during the awarding ceremony held at SM Seaside City Cebu last Sunday, February 11.
Lat, who was the film’s lead, was also named Best Actor.
“It was one of the exciting jobs that I have done and it is difficult to be an actor and director,” Lat told reporters in an interview.
He received a P100,000 cash prize.
It was Lat’s second win for the Sinulog Film Festival. His 2016 entry titled, “Igsuon” won the Best Short Film.
“I could not believe my hard work and my concentration. I lost 20 pounds in two weeks to play the role of a boxer,” he said.
He had to undergo training at boxing gyms in Cebu and Manila for him to learn boxing as part of his preparation.
He said “Ginhawa” is about his brother. Since he wanted tackle boxing and action, he put them together in one film.
The 24-year-old filmmaker was raised in Canada but moved to Cebu City to study film at the International Academy of Film and Television.
At present, he is teaching at the same school and is a full-time filmmaker.
This is not the first time Lat excelled in filmmaking. Last year, his film, “Redlights” won the Silver Award for the first Philippines Viddsee Juree Awards.
Other winners of the Sinulog Film Festival Short Film category this year are: “Onin” (Best Poster and Best Playbill), “Ikid” (Best Packaging and Best Actress for Yon Maningo), “Bugti” (People’s Choice Award and Best Supporting Actress for Ligaya Rabago), “7:25 AM” (Best Sound Engineering and Musical Scoring, and 3rd place for Best Short Film), “Merci” (Nicolas Ampatin as Best Supporting Actor, Best Story and Screenplay, and 2nd place for Best Short Film), and “Pamilya Sinug” (Chloe Veloso as Best Director and Ethan Dacua as Best Child Performer).
BEST VIDEO DOCUMENTARY
The story about the people from Pasil and their resilience during a huge fire that hit them in January won this year’s Best Video Documentary.
“Unscathed” directed by Denzel Yorong also won the Best Playbill, Best Packaging, People’s Choice Award, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Engineering and Musical Scoring, and Best Story.
Yorong, 20, a native of Dumaguete City who is a graduating student of Mass Communication from the University of the Philippines Cebu was also hailed as Best Director.
“This is my first time to join. Wala pako’y story pila ka days before the deadline of registration. Nindot sa feeling because we were able to share the story of Pasil. I believe the story is worth sharing,” Yorong said.
The documentary highlights Sinulog dancers from Barangay Pasil who continued their dance despite the huge fire that hit their area last January.
As students, one of the challenges they encountered was to raise P3,500 for the registration fee. His team is composed of eight students from UP Cebu.
“Nagtigom and amot mi (to raise the P3,500),” he said.
Yorong and his team won P100,000 and they plan to give a huge part of their prize to the affected residents of Pasil.
“We went there and wala pa ka rebuild and kulang pa sa construction materials. Daghan pa og kinahanglanon,” he said.
Yorong said “Unscathed” will be part of Cinema Rehiyon from February 25 to 28.
Other winners in the Video Documentary Category are “Ang Pagpadayun ni Dodoy” (Best Poster, Best Production Design, and third place for Best Video Documentary), and “Buta sa Pagtuo” (Best Editing and second place for Best Video Documentary).
