'Mga Pusang Gala' wins in SanFo film festival

“Mga Pusang Gala", a movie by Filipino filmmaker Ellen Ongkeko Marfil, won the Dockers First Feature Award at Frameline of the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival on Monday. Dubbed XXX: Thirty years of revolutionary film, Frameline is the oldest and biggest film festival with at least 70,000 guests in attendance. Ongkeko Marfil's "Mga Pusang Gala" focused on the fierce friendship between a gay writer of romantic novelettes (Ricky Davao) and an advertising agency executive (Irma Adlawan), which enabled them to cope with faithless lovers and life's other low blows. The movie is based on the first prize Palanca Award-winning play of Jun Lana. It was shot on mini DVD and was later transferred to film. “Mga Pusang Gala" had a commercial run in Manila in August last year. “Mga Pusang Gala" first screened at the Fribourg Film Festival in Switzerland last March. The movie received good reviews and was declared one of the best three films of 2005 by Pasado Awards (a group of teachers) and had received nominations for best actor, best actress, best director and best film at the Star Awards, Famas and Film Academy of the Philippines Awards. Ongkeko Marfil is set to leave for San Francisco this week to sign a contract with Ariztical Entertainment for the movie’s international release. - GMANews.TV