Jaclyn Jose, Brillante Mendoza relive Cannes experience

Veteran Filipina actress Jaclyn Jose is still reeling from shock and bliss after copping the Best Actress award at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in France last weekend.

Jose played the matriarch of a family involved in small-time drug dealing in the film “Ma’ Rosa,” director Brillante Mendoza’s third entry at the prestigious festival’s main competition section.

When her name was called out during the awarding ceremony, she took her daughter and co-star Andi Eigenmann and Mendoza up the stage.

She shared her victory with her director and her daughter, hugging them tightly as she received her award.

“Just like I said in my speech, I was really surprised. I lost sense of what was happening. I just approached Direk and Andi…I can’t recall anymore,”  the actress told the members of the press on Wednesday during a homecoming dinner for the film’s cast and crew at the Makati Shangri-la.

She said all she could remember was the throng of people clapping for them when she received her trophy. She also saw American actress Kirsten Dunst, one of the jury members, wiping away her tears as she delivered her speech.

“I don’t prepare a speech, even in local awards. I just convey what I feel at the moment,” she said, thinking it may be the reason why jury members got emotional.

READ: Jaclyn Jose shares Cannes win

Lucky year

Jose said someone told her that she would be very lucky in 2016. “I thought it was money, but it turned out it was this (the Cannes win).”

Her Cannes experience, she said, is a wonderful phase she can always look back on and smile upon when she is older.

“I was so glad that I was with my daughter when it happened because she can share everything to my granddaughter because she was there,” she said.

“It’s a different feeling when people appreciate your work. It’s more than what I have here (in the Philippines). It’s the same but it’s different people, different points of view of other nations, of different cultures,” she added.

Mendoza felt the same way. “Just being in the competition made us all feel we are already winners.”

The director, who won the Cannes Best Director in 2009 for “Kinatay,” shed tears when the Filipino delegation was showered with a seven-minute standing ovation after the “Ma’ Rosa” premiere at Palais des Festivals on May 18.

IN PHOTOS: Brillante Mendoza receives standing ovation in Cannes

“It was very overwhelming because you feel like carrying the whole Philippines. You are not just there presenting the film, you’re showing our country, you’re showing our people, our culture,”  he said.

“I think they were not clapping for me. They were clapping for the story because our story is the Filipino people. We are the ones being applauded,” he added.  “I’m just an instrument. I’m just the director or storyteller.”

At the film’s arrival fete on Wednesday night, Solar Entertainment awarded Mendoza, Jose and “Imago” director Raymond Gutierrez (short-film category), plaques of recognition to honor their inspiring success in France.

Young director Raymond Gutierrez, actress Jaclyn Jose, and director Brillante Mendoza show to media their award certificates from Cannes Film Festival. ARVIN MENDOZA/INQUIRER.net

She’s the film

Mendoza  also came to Jose’s  defense amid some jurors’ dismissal that Jose’s role was just supporting.

“I beg to disagree. This is Jaclyn’s film. I won’t put that title, if the film is not for her. From the start until the very end, she was there. Maybe they didn’t see over-the-top-acting because she was being natural the whole time,” he explained.

“Sometimes, I also do not agree with the jury. Actually we are among those who were at the bottom [of the ranking]. The one with the highest score, I think 3.6 out of 5 (points), didn’t get any award. Sometimes, what the other jury [member] says is not reliable,” he said.

Jose and Mendoza share a long history of professional relationship that spans decades. Both worked together in ‘80s films such as “Takaw Tukso,” “Private Show” and the “The Great American Dream.”

Jose was also cast in Mendoza’s other films, including “Masahista” (2005), “Tirador” (2007) and “Serbis” (2008).

Mendoza plans to submit “Ma’ Rosa” to the Metro Manila Film Festival this December, subject to the selection process. IDL/rga

READ: Brillante Mendoza: ‘Ma’ Rosa’ to join MMFF this year

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