MANILA, Philippines?Cinemalaya Best Actor Baron Geisler said winning was ?surreal?; Best Actress Mylene Dizon found it ?overwhelming.?

Interviewed by Inquirer backstage at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), where the awards show for the independent film festival was held Sunday night, Baron was shaking; Mylene had to sit down after her acceptance speech.

Mylene, who won for portraying a cancer patient in ?100,? was worried that her speech sounded incomprehensible. ?There was not one complete sentence,? she noted. ?I just arrived from Hong Kong, went straight to the birthday party of [friend] Claudine?s son Santino. Then I rushed here [to the CCP].?

Baron, who played the gay producer of a TV reality show in ?Jay,? said winning was sweet vindication, having figured in a sexual harassment scandal recently.

?It?s weird,? he said. Just days ago, he was in a court hearing. ?Now I?m at the CCP, accepting an award in front of respected critics and artists. I?m blown away. I?m in heaven.?

?Although he has a bad boy image, he?s serious about his craft,? said Robbie Tan, head of the festival?s production and monitoring team.

Francis Xavier Pasion, director of ?Jay? (which also won Best Full-Length Film and Editing) agreed, saying that Baron ?didn?t misbehave and abstained from alcohol throughout the shoot.?

Best Supporting Actress Eugene Domingo, who did a nude scene with Mylene and Tessie Tomas in ?100,? jested: ?I?m glad that my ?body of work? was recognized... that baring my back didn?t turn off viewers? our film also won the Audience award.?

Best Supporting Actor Yul Servo, who played a communist rebel who befriends Mangyan kids in ?Brutus,? related that working in Mindoro was arduous. ?Pero dahil masaya ka, hindi mo na napansin na nasunog na pala ang balat mo.?

Servo?s director, Tara Illenberger, said of winning the Special Jury Prize: ?It?s like all our efforts have been validated. It?s worth all the tears and money spent.?

Earlier, a people?s organization complained that ?Brutus? violated tribal traditions. ?Now the [Mangyan] people are with me and they told me that they would fight for the film.?

Juror Ansgar Vogt, programmer of the International Forum of New Cinema in the Berlin Film Festival, observed that this year?s batch ?shows that the local indie scene is one of the most energetic in the world.?

Other winners:

SHORTS: Best Screenplay, Milo Tolentino, ?Andong?; Director, Mark V. Reyes, ?God Only Knows?; Special Jury Citation, Sheron R. Dayoc?s ?Angan-Angan?; Special Jury Prize, Anna Bigornia?s ?My Pet?; Film, Milo Tolentino, ?Andong.?

FEATURES: Best Sound, Toto Sorioso and Lito Cruz, ?Ranchero?; Original Score, Joey Ayala, ?Brutus?; Production Design, Cristina Honrado, ?Baby Angelo?; Cinematography, Jay Abello for ?Namets? and Dan Villegas for ?Huling Pasada.?

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