Ms. Charo Santos performance in Lav Diaz’ masterpiece “Ang Babaeng Humayo” (“The Woman who Left”) should have gotten an Oscar nomination, according to US film critic Glenn Heath Jr. of San Diego City Beat.
In his piece titled “The best film performances snubbed by Oscar” published online, Glenn enlisted names of superb actors and actresses as a way to “pay respect to the unsung roles the Academy failed to recognize” this year.
Rage, empathy, heartache, joy: This performance has it all,” wrote Glenn.
“Director Lav Diaz convinced one of Filipino cinema’s titanic figures to return to the big screen for this brilliant, nearly four-hour character study about a scorned woman, released from prison after serving 30 years, who traverses the countryside looking for her missing son,” he added.
Glenn also noted Lav’s famed long takes that helped establish deeper emotional stakes in the film “with the camera pinned to Renata’s facial expressions as they change slowly over time.”
Other names included in the list were Salma Hayek for “Beatriz at Dinner,” Nahuel Perez Biscayart for “BPM,” Tiffany Haddish for “Girls Trip,” Kris Avedisian for “Donald Cried,” Harris Dickinson for “Beach Rats,” Ahn Seo-hyun for “Okja,”Robert Pattinson for “Good Time,” and Millicent Simmonds for “Wonderstruck.”
“Ang Babaeng Humayo” is Charo’s movie comeback after serving as president of ABS-CBN. The film brought honor to the country as the first Filipino film to win the Golden Lion or the top prize in the annual Venice Film Festival in Italy.
Earlier this week, Charo’s co-star John Lloyd Cruz also received a best supporting actor nomination also for “Ang Babaeng Humayo” at the 15th International Cinephile Society Awards. He is competing against Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project”), Armie Hammer (“Call Me by your Name”), Barry Keoghan (“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”), Michael Stuhlbarg (“Call Me by Your Name”) and Arnold Valois (“BPM”).
“Ang Babaeng Humayo” was produced by ABS-CBN’s Cinema One Originals and Sine Olivia.
