ShareThisSuperstar Nora Aunor may soon sing her way back to greater fame.
Fresh from contract signing with TV 5 and receiving several awards, the former street vendor turned “Tawag ng Tanghalan” grand champion, recording artist and movie star will undergo a medical operation early next year to restore her vocal chords.
It can be recalled that Nora lost her golden singing voice during a cosmetic operation in Japan in which she reportedly almost died.
Nora underwent the operation in Tokyo by way of preparing for her return home. Due to the botched operation, her homecoming was delayed for a year.
Nora herself disclosed that she will be undergoing te operation at an undisclosed medical center in Boston, Massachusetts this January, according to an ABS-CBN report.
The superstar said said that she was hoping to regain her golden voice after her surgery next year in the US.
Nora finally came home this year after several years in California to star in a historical movie about the life of the late Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo. The movie, entitled “El Presidente,” also stars actor and Laguna Governor Emilio Ramon “ER” Ejercito. Ejercito, a nephew of former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, play the role of Aguinaldo in the movie shot mostly in the historic province of Cavite.
While shooting the movie, TV 5 took her to star in a mini-series which is currently shown in the Kapatid channel. Her reception among the viewers prompted TV 5 to extend a longer contract for the superstar.
Ms. Aunor was earlier honored by the Cinema One Originals Film Fest and Cinemanila for her contributions in Philippine cinema
She was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Philippine Movie Press Club during the PMPC Star Awards at the Henry Lee Irwin Theater of the Ateneo de Manila University.
Nora Aunor personally accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was accompanied by her friend and manager, German Moreno.
In her speech, the Superstar announced that she will quit smoking and would instead support the anti-smoking campaign. It can be recalled that her photo in YES! magazine showing her with a cigarette was fiercely criticized.
Nora was presented the Cinemanila 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award for her accomplishments and contributions to Philippine entertainment as actor, singer, TV host and movie producer.
Nora received her award at the festival’s opening day last November 11 at the Market! Market! Cinema in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City.
As part of the homage to the multi-awarded Nora Aunor, a short video tribute was shown during the presentation of the award.
Nora has won international recognition for her acting from the Cairo Film Festival (“The Flor Contemplacion Story,” 1995), East Asia Film and Television Festival (“Bakit May Kahapon Pa?,” 1997), BrusselsFestival of Independent Films (“Naglalayag,” 2004). She was also nominated in the Berlin Film Festival for “Himala” and awarded the Certificate of Honor in the Cannes Film Festival for “Bona.”
Other film luminaries who had been honored with Cinemanila’s Lifetime Achievement Award are US filmmakers Quentin Tarantino (2007) and Paul Schrader (2009), Indonesian actress and filmmaker Christine Hakim (2003), film programmers Aruna Vasudev and Philip Cheah (2006), Pusan International Film Festival founding director Kim Dong Ho (2005), and fellow Filipino artists Vilma Santos (2003), Eddie Romero (2004) and Dolphy (2010).
Taguig City will now be the permanent home for Cinemanila.
Now on its 13th year, the Cinemanila International Film Festival got the personal backing of Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, a Comunication Arts graduate from Centro Escolar University.
Cayetano said a resolution has been filed before the city council formally taking on Cinemanila as a yearly undertaking of the bustling city. She said the city government’s partnership with Cinemanila Foundation headed by film director Tikoy Aguiluz, who singlehandedly started the festival with a shoestring budget, emphasized the importance her administration is giving to the development of arts and culture.
It also shows her genuine concern for Filipino artists. The arts, she said, add soul to any community or city.
According to showbiz authority Nestor Cuartero, the decision of Cayetano, a sister-in-law of film and TV director Lino Cayetano, to adopt Cinemanila was well received by the industry.
“It was just right that the town where the Cayetano family hails from should support the industry where one of them belongs,” he said.
Cinemanila, an annual undertaking steered by Tikoy Aguiluz with the help of his daughter, Anima, friends, volunteers and other family members, has been moving from venue to venue every year.
Throughout its long history, it has transferred from one city to another, from Makati and Quezon City to Manila and Taguig.
To show further her support to local filmmaking, Mayor Cayetano announced the city government will give cash incentive to producers who will shoot their movies entirely in Taguig.
“We have both modern and provincial locations to suit filmmakers’ needs,” she said.