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Raymond Red film Himpapawid bags critics' award


The film Himpapawid (Manila Skies) by Raymond Red swept five of six awards – including Best Film of 2010 – from the Young Critics’ Circle (YCC) Film Desk, the academicians’ group announced over the weekend. The 21-year-old group, composed of members of the academe from various disciplines, also gave Himpapawid the Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Visual Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Performance (Raul Arellano) awards. Himpapawid bested two other nominees in the Best Film category, namely, Remton Siega Zuasola’s Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria and Jerrold Tarog’s Punerarya, which is also an episode of Shake, Rattle, and Roll 12. YCC is yet to schedule the awards’ presentation. Inspired by a true event Himpapawid, which has been screened in 16 international film festivals, is inspired by a true event and “tackles the astounding story of a lone deranged hijacker who is pushed to the edge as he struggles with the oppression of surviving in modern Philippine society," according to Red’s website. YCC cited Himpapawid “for intelligently plunging into the ironies and complexities of interstitial spaces left open by the tensive relations between social injustice and individual redemption." “The film’s trope of escape, flying, fleeing and migration frames the desperation and angst of characters negotiating the countryside’s abjection, the city’s inhumanity, and society’s decaying institutions," YCC said in a statement. It added, “While all characters are eventually trapped in several labyrinths of debilitating alienation, the film succeeds in investigating the poignant circularity of humanity’s convoluted fall – which draws us into reframing the materiality of the human condition, in general, and the impoverishment of Filipinos, in particular, all in terms simultaneously dialectic, cyclical and spiral." "Departure" from other awards Only Himpapawid, Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria, and Punerarya made it to the YCC’s short list, which means only these films were nominated for any of the six categories. “YCC does not confer nominations on artistic or technical merit if the film does not qualify in the short list. This is one of the major departures of the YCC from all award-giving bodies in the country," the group said in a statement. YCC members are from the Ateneo de Manila University, the University of the Philippines, and De La Salle University. — PE/VS, GMA News

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