Escape into the colorful world of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2017 special jury prize and audience award winner “Saving Sally,” starring Rhian Ramos, Enzo Marcos, and TJ Trinidad, as it marks its cable TV premiere on Cinema One this Sunday (September 3).
“Saving Sally” shows the combined live and animated world of comic book artist Marty (Enzo) who is unrequitedly in love with his geeky bestfriend, Sally (Rhian).
Marty sees Manila littered with monsters, including Sally’s alpha male boyfriend Nick (TJ), as he watches over and tries to save her from her personal struggles.
Aside from the fantasy-animation film’s recent wins in the US, it also bagged three Fantasporto-Oporto International Film Festival recognitions in Portugal, including audience choice, special jury prize and Orient Express Section special jury award. It likewise won the best family film in this year’s Bentonville Film Festival and the 7th Orbit Prize-Special Mention in the recent Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film.
Locally, “Saving Sally” earned the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival best musical score and children choice award, as well as the best production design in the 40th Gawad Urian.
Director Avid Liongoren shared that he was picturing a Quezon City state of mind during the film’s production which resulted to the unique aesthetics as one of the film’s many complex delights – among them the remarkable views of an animated Metro Manila.
Oggs Cruz of Rappler praised the “Saving Sally” production work. “In an industry that thrives in quantity over craftsmanship, where filmmakers are required to deliver their work within the unrealistic timeline of a few months, Avid Liongoren’s Saving Sally is both a wonder and a rarity,” wrote Cruz about the film that started production in 2005 but only finished in 2016.
Heather Chen of BBC News even eyed the film as the next “Scott Pilgrim.” She said, “given its animation-meets-real life component which plays out heavily, and its slacker hero, Saving Sally has drawn comparisons with popular 2010 geek sleeper hit Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”
Get into a Quezon City state of mind in the premiere of “Saving Sally” on Cinema One’s Blockbuster Sunday (September 3) at 8pm. Cinema One is available on SKYcable Channel 56, Destiny Cable Analog 37, and Digital 57. Like Cinema One on Facebook at facebook.com/Cinema1channel to view full schedule.
