Eight GMA-7 finalists in 2015 New York Festivals
Eight entries from GMA Network were named as finalists – the most number of finalists among all local TV networks – in the highly esteemed 2015 New York Festivals World’s Best TV and Films competition.
Top- rating weekend news magazine program “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho” was shortlisted in the Human Interest category for its episode “From Saudi with Love.” A heartwarming story about gratitude that crosses borders, defies language barriers, religion and ethnicity, the episode featured Saudi journalist Rawan Radwan’s search for her former Pinay nanny.
Chosen as one of t he finalists in the Community Portraits category was afternoon program “Reporter’s Notebook” for its “Burak at Pangarap” episode. It centered on the story of 12year- old Junjun, one of the 78,000 children in Metro Manila facing severe deprivation of shelter, after his family was left homeless when a fire razed their home and more than 100 other houses in Malabon City.
Late- night documentary program “Front Row,” in turn, made it as a finalist in the Best Public Affairs Program category for its feature on the neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Titled “ALS,” the documentary took viewers beyond the viral Ice Bucket Challenge and showed the real story behind the disease in the eyes of the patients and their families.
“Katipunan,” GMA Network’s first historical mini- series, earned a finalist status for its premiere episode “Teresa” under the Best Camerawork cat
egory. Pro- duced by GMA News and Public Affairs, “Katipunan” shed light on the real Andres Bonifacio and the men and women who started the revolution.
Meanwhile, nominated in the Biography/Profiles category was GMA News TV’s weekend documentary program “Reel Time” featuring “Dungkoy,” a 10- year- old boy from Calauan, Laguna, who was abandoned by his parents and was left alone to take care of his paralyzed grandmother.
Travel documentary program Motorcycle Diaries’ “Karapatan ng Bata” episode, also on GMA News TV, was named as a finalist in the Human Concerns category. The episode showed how poverty denies countless Filipino children their basic rights through the eyes of several less fortunate children in the country.
“Walang Rape sa Bontok,” one of the winning entries in the first Cine Totoo Philip-pine Docu-mentary Festival produced by GMA News TV, was listed as a finalist in the Film/ Documentaries category. The documentary by Carla Samantha Ocampo tells the story of two Filipinas, both victims of sexual abuse, who yearn for a utopia where women can l i ve without being sexually violated. Further, GMA News TV’s “May Pag- asa” station ID, a collection of stories of hope that aims to show the power of the human heart to see light in the midst of darkness, was chosen as one of the finalists in the Station/ Image Promotion category.
All finalists will proceed to a second round of judging by award-winning industry experts from around the globe. Winners will be presented at the 2015 Television and Film Awards Ceremony scheduled on April 14 in Las Vegas.