After 12 years of absence from directing movies, award-winning filmmaker Jeffrey Jeturian is back to the grind.
And Jeffrey’s return to film directing has given him another crack at the honor roll.
Jeturian bagged the Best Director plum at the recently concluded 51st Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) awards night held at the ballroom of Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City.
His film, “Unmarry,” co-written by Chris Martinez and Theresa Cabaya who were adjudged as writers for Best Screenplay, produced by Quantum Films and Cineko Productions, was also awarded Second Best Picture as well.
It also won a Best Supporting Actor award for Tom Rodriguez.
Technical awards like Best Editing also received as well as Best Float by the film.
In more ways than one, Jeturian’s return to movie directing signals a more promising and heavily favored comeback, sort of a vengeance.
It is as if he has saved many good graces during his respite.
He seems to have gathered enough strength and renewed creativity to recontribute in the growth and development of Philippine cinema he has long loved, lived and cherished.
For it isn’t only the film as a community and an enterprise that he wants to contribute for a better Philippine society.
As I see it, Jeffrey’s vision as a person and as a filmmaker is to set free his art and his audience once again from the chains of ennui, banality, triteness, run of the mill and reactionary.
He is, as a matter of fact, an iconoclast.
He is a steadfast artist.
He works within the system but maintains independence both in his craft and personal beliefs.
He was confident Angelica Panganiban, his lead star in the film, would win the best actress trophy.
Even if she lost, Jeturian has maintained his conviction that for him, Angelica is still his best actress even if an actor with a Down syndrome was honored.
In his Facebook wall, Jeffrey captioned his photo with Angelica “Me and my Best Actress.”
Many things are going for “Unmarry.” At the moment, it is still raking in moolah at the tills making it the third money-making entry to the 2025 MMFF.
It was even given viewing time in cinemas by famed actresses, one of them Kathryn Bernardo and loved it.
Does it mean that there is a director-star team-up of Jeturian and Bernardo on the big screen anytime soon?
Let us wait and see.
