‘Firefly’ is most awarded film of Manila International Film Festival 2024

BY MANILA BULLETIN ENTERTAINMENT

Feb 7, 2024 08:42 AM

  

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AT A GLANCE

• The MIFF is an international film festival that aims to bridge Filipino films to global audiences and showcase Filipino culture and art.

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'Firefly' continued its victorious streak abroad, winning the most awards at the inaugural Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) in Hollywood.

From being the silent underdog to becoming the 2023 MMFF big winner, ‘Firefly’ continued its victorious streak abroad as it won the most awards at the inaugural Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) in Hollywood, California – including the highly-coveted Best Picture honor.

The film produced by GMA Pictures and GMA Public Affairs also took home three more awards and three nominations during the MIFF Awards Night last Feb. 3: another Best Screenplay for GMA Public Affairs SAVP and Firefly creator Angeli Atienza; Best Director for award-winning film and TV director Zig Dulay; and Best Supporting Actress for highly-acclaimed actress Alessandra de Rossi.

Present during the awarding ceremony were GMA Network’s Senior Vice President for Programming, Talent Management, Worldwide, and Support Group, and President of GMA Films Atty. Annette Gozon-Valdes, who accepted the Best Director award on behalf of Zig Dulay; Angeli Atienza; and Firefly actress Ysabel Ortega, who accepted the Best Supporting Actress award on behalf of Alessandra de Rossi. Joining them were Sparkle GMA Artist Center VP Joy Marcelo and Firefly actor Dingdong Dantes. 

In addition to winning four major awards, the film also garnered nominations for the Best Supporting Actor (Epy Quizon) and Actress (Cherry Pie Picache) categories, as well as for Best Cinematography (Neil Daza).

Following their Best Picture win, the ‘Firefly’ team was awarded a $200,000 co-producing package by Birns and Sawyer to produce a US-based feature film.

The 49th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) Best Picture winner, ‘Firefly,’ narrates a moving story about family, dreams, and bravery as the young Tonton, portrayed by MMFF Best Child Performer Euwenn Mikael, embarks on a journey to find the mystical island of fireflies based on his mother's bedtime stories.

The film won Best Screenplay and 15 nominations at the MMFF Gabi ng Parangal last December.

Early this year, ‘Firefly’ was shown in the United Arab Emirates before its screening in Los Angeles, California, as part of the MIFF.

The MIFF is an international film festival that aims to bridge Filipino films to global audiences and showcase Filipino culture and art.

Can you learn Standard German and speak it in Switzerland...

Shayn M.

23,574 followers

76 following

... or do you have to learn Swiss German only and not Standard German?

Of course. I can’t speak Swiss German but I had absolutely no trouble conversing with people in Zürich, Bern, or Luzern. Everyone was totally fluent in Hochdeutsch and more than willing to speak it for my benefit.

If you want to stay in Switzerland long term, learning the dialect is a great idea but nobody will expect non-Swiss to know any of the Swiss dialects.

Many Germans and Austrians live in Switzerland and they get by using standard German all the time, although after a while, locals will start to use dialect around German speakers who’ve been there “long enough”.

I’ve talked about this with some German acquaintances living in Zug and Winterthur and they talk about how, although they still use Hochdeutsch rather than dialect themselves, they can understand the dialect now and their Swiss friends no longer bother to code switch around them.