PEP: Jay wins Special Mention Award in the Bahamas

The 2008 Cinemalaya entry Jay once again brought honor to the country when it was given the Special Mention Award (New Visions Category) at the 5th Bahamas International Film Festival. The awards night of the 5th BIFF was held at the Atlantis Hotel & Resort on Paradise Island last December 8. This year's BIFF, which took place from December 4 to 11, showcased 80 films from 22 different countries. The four competition categories at BIFF are Spirit of Freedom: Narrative; Spirit of Freedom: Documentary; New Vision; and Short Film. The Filipino film Jay, directed by Francis Xavier Pasion, stars Baron Geisler and Coco Martin. In the official website of the BIFF, they describe Jay as a movie about "a gay schoolteacher, is brutally murdered in an apparent sex-crime. Even before his family hears about it, a TV producer—also named Jay—and his camera crew are inside their house to document their shock and grief. The TV producer convinces the family to let him shoot the dead man's wake and funeral for a 'reality show.'" The indie film shot in Pampanga was screened twice in the Bahamas. According to Ferdy Lapuz of Ignatius Films Canada, the next stop for Jay will be the Berlin Hotshots (competition), Rotterdam, Goteburg, Black Film Festival (Geneva) and FICCO (Mexico, competition) international film festivals. During the awards night, the festival honored Academy-Award nominee Laurence Fishburne with the Career Achievement Award while actress/comedian Anna Faris was given the Rising Star Award. During an interview with Ben Lyons for the show At the Movies, Fishburne recalled his experience with his first film Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Copolla. Fishburne admitted that he was just 14 years old when he came to the Philippines to shoot the said war movie. After the awarding ceremony, Francis and Ferdy went up to the stage to talk to Laurence, whom Ferdy described as "very accommodating." When the Matrix star learned that they were from the Philippines, he hugged both of them. Fishburne then revealed that he stayed in the Philippines for almost two years but although he does not remember exactly where in the Philippines because he was very young then. He then told Ferdy and Direk Francis that out of all the films that he has made during his career spanning three decades, people best remember his as Morpheus in the Matrix trilogy. However, he hopes that more people will recognize him as Dr. Raymond Langston in the TV series Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). - Philippine Entertainment Portal