The Kapampangan film ‘Ari: My Life with a King’, bagged two awards from the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino during the recent Gawad Urian awarding ceremony at Kia Theatre, Manila.
Robby Tantingco of the Center for Kapampangan Studies at the Holy Angel University also bagged the Best Screenplay award and Jake Abella for the Best Music category.
Likewise, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Carlo Enciso Catu), Best Actor (Francisco Guinto), Best Supporting Actress (Cecile Yumul), Best Editing (Carlo Francisco Manatad), and Best Sound (Gilbert Obispo).
“The advocacy of our university is to serve, propagate and popularize Kapampangan language and culture. We have published books, uploaded mobile apps, journals, magazines, CDs but we finally found the perfect medium for our advocacy and that is film,” said Tantingco.
The other winners are Best Picture: “Taklub”, Best Actress: LJ Reyes (“Anino sa Likod ng Buwan”), Best Actor: John Lloyd Cruz (“Honor Thy Father”), Best Supporting Actor: Bernardo Bernardo (“Imbisibol”), Best Supporting Actress: Ana Abad Santos (“Apocalypse Child”), Best Director: Jerrold Tarog (“Heneral Luna”), Best Editing: Jerrold Tarog (“Heneral Luna”), Best Sound: Mikko Quizon (“Heneral Luna”), Best Production Design: Ben Payumo (“Water Lemon”), Best Cinematography: Pong Ignacio (“Heneral Luna”), Best Short Film: “Wawa” and Best Documentary Film: “The Crescent Rising.”
Earlier, the other film critics’ group, the Young Critics Circle (YCC), named “Ari: My Life with a King” one of the three Best First-Feature Films of 2015 with nominations for Best Film, Best Screenplay (Tantingco), Best Performance (Ronwaldo Martin) and Best Sound & Aural Orchestration (Obispo and Abella).
The HAU film was also the most awarded movie in the recent Metro-Manila Film Festival (MMFF) New Wave category, winning Best Film, Best Screenplay (Tantingco), Best Actor (Guinto), and Manila Bulletin Best Picture awards.
Last year, the film was named Best World Film in the Harlem International Film Festival in New York, and was the country’s official entry to the international film festivals in Vancouver, Chicago, and Dhaka in Bangladesh.
Carlo Encisco Catu won Best Debut Director in the All Lights India International Film Festival and Talented New Director in the London International Filmmakers Festival of World Cinema (Foreign-Language Film category), plus nominations for Best Foreign-Language Film, Best Actor (Martin), Best Screenplay (Tantingco) and Best Editor (Manatad).
In the 2016 International Filmmakers Festival (IFF) in Nice (France), the film was nominated for the Jury Award, Best Foreign-Language Film, Best Director (Catu), Best Cinematography (Carlo Mendoza) and Best Editor (Manatad).
Last month, “Ari: My Life with a King” won the Bronze Remi Award for First-Feature Films in the Houston Worldfest, as well as the Gawad PASADO for Pinakapasadong Pelikula sa Paggamit ng Wika at Kamalayang Pangkultural.
The Gawad Urian trophy is considered the local industry’s gold standard in filmmaking.