Debuting Director Therese Cayaba Of Cine Filipino Filmfest Entry, 'Delia And Sammy', Feels Her Lead Actress Has Good Chance Of Winning An Acting Award

AT THE PRESSCON of the Cine Filipino Filmfest entry, “Delia and Sammy”, debuting writer-director Therese Cayaba revealed that she first submitted the script of her movie to other local filmfests, like Cinema One and Cinemalaya, and also the Film Financing Forum, but they all rejected it. “Each time hindi makapasok, I take note of their comments and I kept on revising my script,” she says. “Finally, nakapasok din dito sa Cine Filipino and they said, we really love your script. Their grant is P2 million to finance it and they gave me complete freedom to shoot it the way I envision it. After I completed it, they watched it and they said mabagal, so we reedited it para mas bumilis ang pacing.”

“Delia and Sammy” is the story of an old couple, played by the comebacking Rosemarie Gil and Jaime Fabregas. Delia is a hasbeen movie star and Sammy is a retired military man who’s now suffering from various ailments, including Alzheimer’s disease. Delia learns she has terminal illness. She now tries to locate old relatives who might take Sammy in when she is gone, including Sammy’s former mistress, Carmen, played by Tessie Tomas. Helping them in their journey is a very caring security guard, played by Nico Antonio.

How did they get Rosemarie to play Delia? “Atty. Joji Alonso of Quantum Films helped us. Sabi niya: ‘Alam ko kung sino ang babagay rito.’ She gave the script to Cherie Gil, who liked it right away. We thought Cherie is too young to be Delia, but it’s meant for her mother pala, and she turned out to be the best choice. She has apprehensions at first kasi 12 years na since she last did a movie. She’s just here on vacation. Pero sobrang galing niya. Hirap lang siya sa Tagalog words, but Sir Jaime is very helpful in coaching her how to pronounce them correctly.”

Does she think Rosemarie has a good chance of bagging the filmfest best actress award? “Dapat lang siyang manalo. I will feel sad kundi siya mananalo. But the whole cast is good, including Nico Antonio as the security guard who provides the comic relief. Masaya siyang katrabaho, kwela sa set, perfect pambalanse sa veteran stars na kasama niya. Puede siyang manalong best supporting actor.”