It was a special night for the protégés as they got to act with Maricel Soriano in five short films, all directed by Cannes filmfest best director Brilliante Mendoza. Four special awards were given away: Maricel’s choice for best actress and best actor are Elle Ramirez and Andres Vasquez, both from Mega-Manila, so it’s not surprising that their mentor Roderick Paulate is very proud and beaming widely. Direk Mendoza’s choice for best breakthrough performance is also Andres, so he won two awards last Sunday night. The best ensemble acting went to the Visayas group composed of the Megan Young lookalike Zandra Summer, Mikoy Morales and the hunky Bryan Benedict.
As the judges themselves noted, the films were too short for the protégés to truly make much of an impact. It would have been better if they were all given the same parts then just evaluate which one interpreted it best. As it is, some protégés got better roles than the other ones, best demonstrated in the Mindanao episode where David John Llanas easily got the best role and better exposure than his colleagues. In the case of the Visayan protégés which is about a gay son and a lesbian daughter, the aspirants got lost when Maricel started adlibbing. It’s good Zandra, Bryan and Mikoy were still able to catch up with her and adlib on their own.
