MANILA – The Philippines’ entertainment industry on Monday celebrated Jaclyn Jose’s surprise win at the Cannes film festival, hailing her as one of the nation’s hardest working and most versatile actresses who deserves global acclaim.

Jose, 52, famous at home mostly as a soap opera star, won best actress Sunday for her mesmerising performance as a Manila slum matriarch who falls prey to corrupt police in acclaimed Filipino director Brillante Mendoza’s “Ma’ Rosa”.

“This is a victory for the Filipino film industry. This is a victory for the Philippines as a whole,” Joel Lamangan, another well-known director, told AFP.

“Filipinos are very good actors. They can be compared to anybody. That’s what Jaclyn Jose proved.” Jose’s original manager Ed Entrella said that although Jose has been one of the nation’s most popular actresses for three decades, she decided at a young age she “wanted to be an actress, not a star”.

Her current manager Perry Lansigan described her as a “workaholic” who relentlessly pursued as many roles as possible.

“She doesn’t take a rest of two or three months (between roles) like other actors,” Lansigan said.

Lilybeth Rasonable, senior vice-president of GMA, the television network where Jose has worked for the past three years, said she has surprised executives with her versatility.

In the 2013 soap opera, “The World is Mine”, Jose played an antagonistic ex-beauty queen but rose above the simple stereotype.

“She put real character into it. She made it different. She put in certain quirks after she discussed it with her director,” Rasonable said.

Jose’s character proved so popular that she was introduced to do cameos in unrelated TV shows, according to Rasonable.

Although Jose already stars in a soap opera, she will launch a weekly comedy on the same network as soon as she returns from France.

Wilson Tieng, head of the Movie Producers and Distributors Association of the Philippines, said the interest generated by Jose’s award would likely get her movie screened in commercial cinemas.

“It will be distributed in the cinema chains. People are already calling up to ask about screenings but we don’t have a date yet,” said Tieng, whose group distributes movies nationwide.

Philippine movie theatres typically show formulaic local comedies and romances as well as Hollywood blockbusters, but shun the nation’s independent films that have won many awards overseas.

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AFP, Reuters