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Nora honored for lifetime achievement by Cinemanila fest

Now on its thirteenth year, the 2011 Cinemanila International Film Festival (CIFF) is awarding superstar Nora Aunor a Lifetime Achievement Award, along with Italian film director and producer Dario Argento.

In giving the award, Cinemanila, in cooperation with its home city Taguig, recognizes Nora’s contributions to the entertainment industry as actress, singer and producer. Nora has won awards for best actress in Cairo Film Festival (for “The Flor Contemplacion Story”), East Asia Film and Television Festival (“Bakit May Kahapon Pa?”) and Brussels Festival of Independent Films (“Naglalayag”).

"She’s an international artist. Hindi ko nga alam kung bakit negative ang mga issues sa kanya. Magaling siya (na actress) at mabait na tao,” said Director Tikoy Aguiluz, founder of CIFF.

Nora was also nominated in the Berlin Film Festival for “Himala” and awarded the Certificate of Honor in the Cannes Film Festival for “Bona.”

Best movie of all time

Aguiluz said Nora was being honored for the 1982 movie “Himala,” where she played the lead.  Directed by the late Ishmael Bernal, “Himala” won the CNN APSA (Asia Pacific Screen Awards) Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of all Time.

Beginning with what CNN called “an avalanche of raving positivity,” the movie bested the likes of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” from Taiwan, “Seven Samurai” from Japan, and “Chungking Express” from China.

The director also noted that Nora’s best actress nod in Cairo makes her the first Filipino actress to win an international acting award.

Nora will be awarded during the festival’s opening night on November 11. The 13th Cinemanila will be held from November 11-17 at the Market! Market! cinemas in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Nora’s classic films to be shown

Cinemanila will also screen Nora’s classic films such as Mario O’Hara’s “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos” (1976), Lupita Kashiwahara’s “Minsa'y Isang Gamu-Gamo” (1976), Lino Brocka’s “Bona” (1980) and “Himala.”

With her Lifetime Achievement Award, Nora joins Cinemanila’s past winners who included director Quentin Tarantino, “Taxi Driver” writer Paul Schrader, director Eddie Romero actors Christine Hakim, Vilma Santos and Dolphy, and director Kim Dong Ho.

Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano said the city renewed its partnership with Cinemanila because, she said, “what we wanted eventually is for Taguig City to be home of great films.” 

The 2011 Cinemanila Festival will screen around 80 international and local films which were favorites in prestige festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Pusan.

Among the films this year are Kim Jee-Won’s “I Saw The Devil,” Dario Argento’s “Suspiria,” Wim Wenders’s “Pina,” Takashi Miike’s “13 Assassins” and Park Chan-wook’s “Nightfishing.”