Star for All Seasons and Governor of Batangas Vilma Santos won the award for Best Actress at the 13th Dhaka International Film Festival at the capital city of Bangladesh for the film Ekstra. The said film festival was held from January 10-18 and 22 films are included in the Australasian Competition category where Ekstra one of the entries having two screening Jan. 13 at the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, 26 Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka and Jan. 16 at the Central Public Library Auditorium in Dhaka.
Ekstra was the only entry from the Philippines on the said film festival and it made her won the Best Actress award among the 21 entries. Other winners include Levon Haftvan from Iran for Best Actor for Parviz and Parviz Shahbazi won Best Director for the film Trapped also from Iran. There was no winner for the Best Picture Award for this year.
Aside from the Australasian Competition category, other categories include Retrospective and Tribute, Children Section, Cinema of the World, Spiritual Films, Shorts and Independent Section and Women Filmmakers Section.
The film Ekstra was an entry for the Directors Showcase of the 9th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival directed by Jeffrey Jeturian. It was a socio-realist drama-comedy film that follows the story of a bit player named Loida Malabanan played by Vilma. It reflects the reality and truth in the ruling system of the production as well as the exploitation of the marginalized laborers like her. The film was Vilma’s only big screen project in 2013 and it was brought in the mainstream cinema by Star Cinema last August 2013 as one of their 20th Anniversary offering. Ekstra during Cinemalaya gave Vilma Santos her Best Actress Award during the said film festival and other awards and recognitions include Special Jury Prize, Audience Choice, NETPAC Award, Best Supporting Actress for Ruby Ruiz and Best Screenplay.
Vilma was joined by Marlon Rivera, Vincent de Jesus, Ruby Ruiz and Tart Carlo with special participation of Piolo Pascual, Marian Rivera, Cherie Gil, Pilar Pilapil, Tom Rodriguez, Eula Valdez, Cherry Pie Picache, Richard Yap and Terence Baylon.
