"Star for all Seasons” Vilma Santos may or may have not won Best Actress in the ongoing 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) by the time you’re reading this column at 10 p.m., or later, of Friday (27 December). Though this issue of the column is meant to come out in print on Saturday morning, it was actually transmitted to the editors Friday morning. So kindly don’t get irked that we’re not carrying the results of the awards night, which may still be going on this late Friday night at The Theater at Solaire. 

Santos is mightily expected to romp away with the Best Actress trophy for her luminous performance as an avenging mother of a young woman who was raped by a conscience-devoid billionaire who makes so much money through illegal business ventures. With the saturated ubiquitous publicity for Santos’ comeback movie after a hiatus of about two decades, you most likely know that the movie is curtly titled Uninvited. 

For the meantime, we’ll say “Congratulations! Mabuhay!” to all the winners who may all have been announced as you read this on Friday night, or at the event ongoing at Solaire. 

If Uninvited won any of the Best Picture trophies (there are usually three winners in this category: third, second and grand winner), the Santos-Aga Muhlach-Nadine Lustre starrer may have begun doing even better at the box office. 

It ranked “only” fourth in box office gross on opening day (25 December), according to a report of the Troika in PEP.ph  website on 26 December. 

The three topnotchers on opening day were And the Breadwinner is... The Kingdom and the horror-thriller Espantaho.

The producer Bryan Diamante of Mentorque is hardly disappointed with his film’s opening-day revenue. The Troika quoted Diamante as saying after the 1:40 p.m. screening of Uninvited at Cinema 3 of Gateway mall on 25 December: “We’re very happy. Ang dami po naming (we have a lot of) sold-out cinemas today.”

Diamante revealed that advanced ticket-selling online is a big help on monitoring sold-out screenings. 

“Malaking tulong ang online ticket sales. Confident ka na na-curious ang mga tao (Online ticket sales helped a lot. I was confident that people were curious),” Diamante revealed in the interview. 

“And today is the D-Day. And hopefully, di ba, magtuluy-tuloy po (our luck will continue).”

Uninvited has all fabulous reviews so far as published on regular media and on social media. 

“I’m very, very happy. It’s overwhelming… yung reviews, napaka-overwhelming! (The reviews were overwhelming),” blurted Diamante about the outpouring of rave reviews. 

About his reaction to the movie itself at the time of the media interview, Diamante further revealed: “Siyempre, dahil ilang beses ko na siyang napanood, desensitized na ako. So, may konti kang kaba (Of course because I watched the movie many times, I am confident of the movie. But you have a little fear).

“And today, it’s trending today because people are talking about online. So, nakakatuwa po. Nag-viral siya (It is fun, the movie has gone viral) on its own today.”

Diamante gleefully elucidated: “Even though Uninvited is rated  R-16 by the MTRCB, I’m very confident it will surpass the box office performance of our Mallari last year. We saw the numbers coming in already for Uninvited.”

Last year’s horror movie Mallari starring Piolo Pascual was also produced by Mentorque. It ranked second to record-busting Rewind top-billed by the real-life couple Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes. 

If film reviews matter in public consciousness in this country, then Uninvited might become the gross topnotcher — with Santos winning the Best Actress trophy. 

Uninvited opened in 132 movie houses nationwide. That’s way below the number of theaters allotted to And the Breadwinners is... : more than 200.

If Santos just won, and if the movie also clinched any of the three Best Picture trophies, Uninvited will be booked in additional theaters to be taken away from the least active at the box office. 

But if Santos did not win the  MMFF 2024 jury to her side, the attacks against them may have begun building up as you are reading this. The same could also be true if Aga Muhlach did not emerge Best Actor. Reviews of his portrayal of a completely amoral billionaire are actually an avalanche, too, practically matching that of Santos. 

For some reasons, the name of the jurors were not announced in advance. One member of Troika surely knows the jury board composition: Noel Ferrer, who has been publicist of the MMFF for some years now. By now, of course, who those jurors are have been announced at the awards night. 

If Santos has just won Best Actress, her fans and supporters might be inspired to intensify their campaign to get her proclaimed National Artist in the next round of awarding the honor. President Bongbong Marcos will most likely pass up the chance to add to his Presidential history having named some National Artists. Nora Aunor and Rickly Lee were proclaimed under the Duterte administration

If Santos becomes National Artist, she would absolutely be a historic figure in this part of the world.