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The biggest winner that night, however, was Comedy King Dolphy. He was not around, however, to accept both his Best Supporting Actor award for “Rosario” and Best Actor award for RVQ Productions' “Father Jejemon.”

The audience was rather perplexed over the first announcement. Not many knew he was in the Mercado movie.

“Hindi lang siya guest star sa pelikula, he is the storyteller of the whole film. Siya ‘yong batang lumaki later,” volunteered Cabaldo-Bañaga.

It was director Frank Gray, Jr. who accepted the Best Actor award for Dolphy.

“Alam na naman natin, may sakit pa siya. Hindi siya puwede sa maraming tao,” said Gray, who is Dolphy’s nephew.

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"ROSARIO", an official entry to the 36th MMFF directed by Albert Martinez and starring Jennylyn Mercado, Dennis Trillo, Sid Lucero, Yul Servo, Philip Salvador, Eula Valdez, and Dolphy.

As a treat, here's an initial POSTER STUDY for Rosario. The image was taken from an actual clip from the movie, and was personally chosen by Direk Albert Martinez to launch the ROSARIO viral promotion in the internet. The official website, trailer, Facebook, and Twitter accounts will be up very soon.

ROSARIO has only two shooting days left. The last day of shoot will be on Saturday, Sep. 11. All in all, ROSARIO was shot in 27 days in various locations in Manila (Sta. Mesa, Fairview, Makati, Sampaloc) and in Pangasinan; Pila, Laguna; Taal, Batangas; Guagua, Pampanga; Bulacan; and Tanay, Rizal.

Musical scoring for ROSARIO will be done in Los Angeles by an Asian-American composer with a 25-piece orchestra. Details about the composer to follow.

Negotiations are underway for ROSARIO's promotion in other TV networks. Cinemabuhay is willing to place TV ads of Rosario in ABS-CBN and GMA. Rest assured that the moviegoing public will be very much aware of ROSARIO as Cinemabuhay will tap other promotional venues.

ROSARIO will truly be a milestone in Jennylyn Mercado's career as it will put her notches above her contemporaries. The role demands range, depth, and sensitivity, as the character will age from 18 to late 30s, and go through a lot of transformation--both physical and emotional. Rosario is the kind of role that most actors--who are really passionate about their craft--aim for, as it challenges them to go beyond their movie persona, and sink deeply into the character that they're supposed to play. Hopefully, Rosario will do to Jennylyn what "Burlesk Queen" did to Vilma Santos (the role that launched Vilma as a mature actress), or "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" or "Himala" to Nora Aunor, or even "Sophie's Choice" to Meryl Streep.

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Albert Martinez will direct the filmfest entry of Cinemabuhay titled Rosario which stars Jennylyn Mercado and Dennis Trillo. Filming starts on July 8.

The final cast include Jennylyn as Rosario, Dennis as Ricardo, Isabel Oli as Carmen, sid Lucero as Carding, Yul Servo as Vicente, Phillip Salvador as Don Enrique, Eula Valdez as Dona Adela, Dolphy as Jesus, Empress Schuck as Soledad and Ricky Davao as Miguel.

According to Albert, they have a great material in “Rosario” and it’s been five years in the making. If we are not mistaken, this is first assignment of Albert as a film director. And it’s a big challenge since he’s joining the December filmfest where top film outfits usually have entries.

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