MANILA, Philippines--?Unsure of the outcome of the awards show, we decided that, win or lose, we?ll make the most of our trip to Cannes.?

Actor Coco Martin was referring to the night of May 25, when the highly coveted Palm d?Or was handed to the French film ?Entre les murs? at the recently concluded 61st Cannes International Film Festival in France.

Coco, who was part of the cast and entourage of Dante Mendoza?s ?Serbis,? had hoped the film would clinch a first-ever victory for the country. ?Serbis,? the tale of a family operating a rundown movie house in Angeles City, competed in the full-length category.

Praised by Sean Penn

The Philippine entry failed to win, but was reportedly praised by jury head Sean Penn. ?He said he liked it. It?s heartwarming that someone as big a star as Penn believed in our work,? Coco said in an interview a week after arriving from the trip.

?The awards show was so awesome that we soon forgot how depressed we were. We also had a blast at the cocktail party,? he recalled.

The trip to Cannes was the seventh international film festival that Coco had attended. His first was the Locarno Festival in Switzerland in 2005 for his debut film, ?Masahista,? also megged by Mendoza.

The film, the story of a masseur in the big city who goes home to bury his dead father, bagged the Golden Leopard Award. Locarno is widely regarded as the fourth biggest film festival in Europe after Cannes, Berlin and Venice.

Another Mendoza award-winning film, ?Tirador,? gave Coco the opportunity to see Dubai with co-star Kristoffer King. The story of a group of petty thieves operating in the busy streets of Quiapo, ?Tirador? bagged the Calgari Film prize at the Berlinale International Film Festival in Germany.

Coco, 23, will soon be seen in the Francis Xavier Pasion digital film ?Jay,? opposite Baron Geisler. He is a mainstay of ?Ligaw na Bulaklak,? a soap series on the Kapamilya Network.

E-mail mcruz@inquirer.com.ph