The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP) released recently its list of nominees for the 48th Gawad Urian that will be held at De La Salle University on 11 October. Like in any other movie event, there were, of course, questions asked by the public about the nominations.

The usual question surfaced again this year: Why does the Manunuri (to which this writer belongs, by the way) nominate films that very few people watched? The answer to that: It is because those movies were shown last year and are qualified to compete at the 2025 Gawad Urian.

Box-office performance is not a consideration for choosing the best of the year in the Urian. It is quality that matters for this local critics’ group.

In choosing the finalists this year, the Manunuri watched films in different languages: Filipino, English, the various Visayan tongues, Japanese and even Vietnamese. Why Japanese and Vietnamese? Well, some Filipino producers did collaborations with foreign countries and the film products they did had to be included in the awards race due to the Pinoy participation in those projects.

This is the reason why the list of nominees includes Kono Basho, which is directed by a Filipino, Jaime Pacena. The Fil-Vietnamese collab, Viet and Nam, sadly, failed to get a spot in the finals.

The elevation of Ruru Madrid to lead status in Green Bones also led to confusion since this GMA talent competed — and won — in the best supporting actor category during the last Metro Manila Film Festival. Ruru actually plays lead in the story. During the film fest, GMA Pictures put him in the supporting category (this is allowed by the festival committee) so that he does not compete with Green Bones co-star Dennis Trillo. This tactic worked. Dennis won best actor, while Ruru was hailed supporting actor.

It is different in the Urian though. It is the Manunuri that chooses the categories to which the performers belong. Ruru and Dennis therefore will compete with each other at this year’s Urian, along with the other nominated actors: Carlo Aquino (Crosspoint), Baron Geisler (Dearly Beloved), Ronnie Lazaro (Phantosmia), Sid Lucero (Outside) and Enzo Osorio (The Hearing).

The biggest — and most violent issue — in this year’s Urian concerns the non-inclusion of Marian Rivera in the best actress list for the movie Balota. Her fans are up in arms against the members of the Manunuri — sending us hateful messages like we stole from the budget of flood control projects.

It is easy to understand where the hatred of the Marian fans is coming from. Marian had been winning best actress in other awards races. Her camp had been hoping for a grand-slam for the actress. But this will not happen anymore because she is not nominated in the Urian.

So, why did she not make the list? Let us start with her film Balota. The Manunuri has a lot of issues with this movie, directed by Kip Oebanda.

Oebanda also directed the film Bar Boys. It is one movie that I personally enjoy watching. I say it in the present tense because I keep watching it on YouTube because it is such a fun film. There are also separate clips that show the law professors torturing the students inside the classroom and all those are hilarious to watch.

I would have pushed for Bar Boys to at least get a nomination for best picture in 2017. But this was the year of Balangiga: Howling Wilderness, Respeto and Tu pug imatoy. Even Larawan failed to get nominated for best picture that year.

Bar Boys, however, gave Odette Khan a slew of best supporting actress trophies from various award-giving bodies, including the Urian.

So what is the problem with Balota? The film is about the elections — Filipino style. This means there are guns, goons and gold. It also shows ballot snatching and everything that is wrong with elections in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, Balota does not say anything new. If you want to watch a film about Philippine elections, I suggest you try finding on YouTube Sampaguita Pictures’ Kandidatong Pulpol in 1961. The movie stars Dolphy and Panchito.

Still in black-and-white, Kandidatong Pulpol is a hilarious satire on how we elect our officials. The sad part about the film is that the issues we had in 1961 are still the same today. But Kandidatong Pulpol is fun to watch – actually a riot.

Balota is the opposite of Kandidatong Pulpol. Sadly, Oebanda does not succeed here the way he does in Bar Boys, which is a truly engaging film.

Since Rivera’s film entry is problematic, it should not come as a surprise anymore that she failed to get an Urian nomination for her film. Sorry to say, but she was unable to rise above the defective material that was handed to her.

The actresses who made it to the final list were Mylene Dizon (The Hearing), Lovi Poe (Guilty Pleasure), Aicelle Santos (Isang Himala), Jenaica Sangher (Tumandok) and Arisa Nakano and Gabby Padilla (Kono Basho).

The fans of Judy Ann Santos were also hoping the actress would get a nomination for Espantaho, especially since she won best actress for the same movie in the last film fest. She was also voted best actress in the 45th Fantasporo Film Festival in Portugal for Espantaho a few months ago.

Judy Ann’s fans, fortunately, took the news of the actress’ non-inclusion for Urian best actress rather well. Maybe because they are aware that the Urian was the first awards body to validate Judy Ann as an important artist when the Manunuri gave her the best actress trophy for Sabel in 2004.

It is just unfortunate that the Marian fans reacted differently. I do not read comments (I actually should), but one was sent to me by a friend who thought I ought to know about it. The message said in reaction to the Urian list of nominees: “Walang Balota! Walang Marian Rivera! Malaki talaga ang galit ni Butch kay Marian.” (“No Balota! No Marian Rivera! Butch must really be mad at Marian.”)

But why would I even get mad at Marian? We never fought – not once. Only recently, her husband Dingdong Dantes and I worked together in an industry project.

If I have to go back in time, I was very supportive of Marian’s selection as Marimar in 2007. I wrote a positive review about the actress and in gratitude, she sought me out to thank me in person.

I never wrote anything nasty about her. I have always admired her as a performer, in fact. In 2010, she had a film fest entry called Super Inday at ang Golden Bibe. I got her a nomination for that film because of her excellent comedic timing. She did not win, but, at least, she got a nomination. Hours before the awards presentation, she called me up to thank me for a positive review I wrote about her performance.

But this time, there was nothing I could do. To begin with, I am just equivalent to one vote and there are 11 of us in the group.

The truth is, Marian — in my book — I gave her an above-average performance in Balota. But she is miscast for the part — as a poll watcher during the day of the elections. In the scene where the bad guys are chasing her in the forest, she looked like Snow White being pursued by the henchmen of the Wicked Stepmother in the Walt Disney cartoon.

And in another scene where she is hiding from the goons, she lets out a loud scream out of desperation. But isn’t she supposed to be hiding?

There are also different kinds of acting: There is acting for theater where the movements are big. On film, subtlety is a must because one is performing for the big screen.

The performance delivered by Marian in Balota, it must be stressed here, is soap opera acting. Her director and she herself should have adjusted her acting to suit the film medium. And so, those are the reasons why she failed to get an Urian nomination for Balota.

But it is not too late. Marian had always been a good actress. I believe in my heart that someday, she will get an Urian. And I’ll be the happiest person if she gets one.