Brazil scores two international titles in 2023 with help from Filipino pageant director

Reigning Man of the Year Dereck Gimenes and reigning Great Man of the Universe Joao Emilao. Image: INQUIRER.net/Armin P. Adina

MANILA, Philippines—Filipinos have dominated the international pageant scene, not only by winning titles but also through honing other countries’ delegates to global tilts. And Brazil has a Filipino to thank for scoring two titles last year.

Brazilian hunk Dereck Gimenes won in the sixth edition of the Man of the Year competition held in Indonesia on Nov. 10. And just 15 days later, his compatriot Joao Emiliao took home the title in the inaugural staging of the Great Man of the Universe contest held in the Philippines.

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Both delegates from Brazil were fielded by US-based Filipino Joselli Rojas, who founded The Authority Productions (TAP) in Los Angeles in 2021 to build upon his budding modeling and talent agency to expand into producing fashion shows, stage plays and media content.

And even before Gimenes’ and Emiliao’s triumphant two-for-two campaign last month, TAP had already snagged a major international victory when Rojas’ ward Blake Johnston from the US captured the title in the first edition of the Mister Cosmopolitan competition in Malaysia on Oct. 10.

TAP started fielding delegates to international competitions only in 2022 when he sent representatives from the US, Philippines, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, Switzerland, France and Cape Verde. Aside from the Mister Cosmopolitan, Great Man of the Universe and Man of the Year organizations, Rojas also forged partnerships with the Ms. Mesoamerica, Manhunt International: Male Supermodel, and the Miss and Mister Supranational pageants.

And in his first year as national director for various international competitions, Rojas had already produced delegates that reaped accolades on the global stage—2022 Reinado Internacional del Café fourth runner-up Rebecca Stoughton from the US, 2022 Mister Supranational Top 10 finisher Adrian Itzam from El Salvador, and 2022 Manhunt International: Male Supermodel second runner-up Elijah Van Zantem from the US.

INQUIRER.net sat with Rojas during his visit to the Philippines late last year, and asked what motivates his pursuit in pageantry. “I still believe in beauty pageants. There are so many things going on. Why are pageants competing with another pageant? I just feel like, as a beauty pageant or a male competition, we should be more like a community,” he responded.

“We should be able to give entertainment, and not fight on who’s better, who’s the best, which competition is more powerful. I just want it still to be more relevant. Because with so many things that are going on, I just miss the old entertainment that beauty pageants provide,” he added.

Emiliao praised his national director, and said, “Joselli is a nice person and always trying to help us with his best, and always training us. Joselli, the best national director.”

Gimenes, for his part, said, “Brazilian people are so beautiful, and I’m so grateful for this.”