Mother Lily And Roselle Monteverde Host A Victory-Welcome Party For Direk Jun Lana & Paolo Ballesteros For The Success Of 'Die Beautiful' In Tokyo Filmfest

MOTHER LILY MONTEVERDE hosted a victory-welcome party for Direk Jun Lana and Paolo Ballesteros at her Valencia Events Place last Monday for the success of "Die Beautiful" which won the best actor and the audience awards at the Tokyo International Filmfest. So many of his showbiz colleagues are happy for Paolo and greeted him on social media, like Joey de Leon, Anne Curtis, Eugene Domingo, Allan K, Barbie Forteza, Carla Abellana, Rocco Nacino, etc.
 
"Ako, I'm very happy for Jun Lana," says Mother Lily who's happy these days because her movie, 'The Escort', is a certified big hit. "As a scriptwriter, he did many movies with us like 'Paraiso ni Efren', 'Red Diaries', 'I Think I'm in Love', 'Two Timer', then he started directing for us in 'Gigil', 'My Neighbor's Wife', 'So It's You', 'The Prenup' and many other films, kaya I'm happy for the victory of his 'Die Beautiful'. Sana makapasok sila sa Metro-Manila Filmfest, at yun ding entry ng Regal, 'Mano Po 7, Chinoy'."

"Not many people know it, but it's Mother Lily who sent me to a university in Melbourne, Australia to study film directing," adds Jun. "Kaya I owe her and her daughter Roselle a lot."

Did he expect "Die Beautiful" to win in Tokyo? "Honestly, no, because I didn't know how a Filipino film about a transgender would resonate with Japanese audiences, kasi I really made it with Pinoy viewers in mind. But when a lot of Japanese viewers were laughing during the screening our movie and later told us they love it, sabi ko, parang may laban kasi very positive ang feedback. And si Paolo, everybody is raving about his performance kaya alam ko malaki ang chance niya to win."

Direk Jun says Paolo is now in the same ranks as other local actors who won acting awards in A list festivals, like Uge who also won in the Tokyo Filmfest, Jaclyn Jose who won in Cannes, Therese Malvar in Moscow and Nora Aunor in Cairo. Even Paolo's own daughter, Kiera, is so happy for her dad and greeted him in a video message. Kiera now lives with her mom in Chicago and is obviously very proud of her father's achievement.

Here's wishing that "Die Beautiful" will make it as a finalist in the December filmfest and that people would really go and watch it to make it a big hit. post">
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