There Are So Many Good Roles For Actresses This Year But Few For Actors

IT’D BE HARD to choose who’d be the best actress this year as we have so many strong and superb performances among our actresses. Those who shone include Cherie Gil in “Sonata”, Vilma Santos in “Ekstra”, Nora Aunor in “Kuwento ni Mabuti” (who was bested as best actress by neophyte child star Teri Malvar of “Huling Cha Cha ni Anita” at the CineFilipino Filmfest), Lorna Tolentino in “Burgos”, Rustica Carpio in “Ano ang Kulay ng mga Nakalimutang Pangarap”, Lovi Poe in “Sana Dati”, Irma Adlawan in “Transit” and “Bamboo Flowers” and Eugene Domingo in a straight drama role in the forthcoming “Mga Kuwentong Barbero”.

But if you’d notice, except for Joel Torre in “On the Job”, there are not really that strong male performances so far. Local actors obviously are a much neglected lot as filmmakers don’t seem to have truly good and challenging roles for them, which is understandable why the jurors in the recent Cinemalaya filmfest didn’t choose any best actor in the Directors Showcase category. In the New Wave Category, the best actor winner is Mimi Juareza, a transgender, and we’re sure she’ll be nominated anew in next year’s award derbies.

The only other performances we can think of that are worth mentioning are those of Alex Medina as the internet scammer who falls in love with his target victim in “Babagwa”, Arnold Reyes as the dying rebel who bonds with his long lost daughter for the last time in “Tag-araw ni Twinkle”, Jake Cuenca as the gay rebel hopelessly in love with a comrade in “Lihis” and Allen Dizon as the psychotic constabulary captain in “Lauriana”.

And mind you, the year is not yet over. Forthcoming films in the last three months of the year might yet spring more surprises. This is indeed a year of good harvest for local films. Even in the best picture category, there are so many that are truly outstanding.