‘Meet Me in St. Gallen’ wins 9 awards at the 25th Annual Filipino International Cine Festival

FILE: Carlo Aquino and Bela Padilla at Meet Me in St. Gallen’s Victory Party. (Photo: springfilms/Instagram)

Romantic comedy drama film Meet Me in St. Gallen did not just win the hearts of its viewers, but it also bagged most of the awards at the 25th annual Filipino International Cine Festival held in Roxie Theater in San Francisco, California.

Out of 11 awards during the Cine Festival awards, nine of these were brought home by Irene Villamor’s 2018 film.

Meet Me in St. Gallen was hailed as “Best Film,” with its filmmaker bagging both “Best Director” and “Best in Writing” awards.

Of course, the stars of the film Bela Padilla and Carlo Aquino, who played the roles of Celeste Francisco and Jesse Abaya respectively, were also named as the “Best Actress” and “Best Actor.”

On her Instagram post on Tuesday, October 23, Bela expressed her gratitude to everyone who worked hard for the success of their movie.

“What started out as our little #HappyProject made its way from St. Gallen to San Fransisco,” the 27-year-old actress said.

Apart from these, Meet Me in St. Gallen also added “Best in Cinematography,” “Best in Aural Design,” “Best in Visual Design,” and “Best in Editing” awards on its list of accolades.

The film revolves around the story of Celeste and Jesse, who spent a night together as complete strangers after they met in a coffee shop. They enjoyed each other’s company until they had to part ways. But as fate would have it, Celeste and Jesse met again after a few years in the same place where they first met.

The 25th Annual Filipino International Cine Festival was hosted by Filipino Arts & Cinema International (FACINE), a non-profit organization “dedicated to empowering emerging artists and diverse audiences to create films that speak about Filipino communities globally, by promoting cinema as a social document of Filipino culture and heritage, and as medium of artistic expression,” according to its website.