Maricel was robbed of an acting award for this brilliant film. Nida Blanca surprised everyone with her dramatic turn in Brocka's Miguelito but watching both movies now you can clearly see the difference between the two performances. Maricel's was so restrained, a triumph for Bernal. he was the only filmmaker who can actually control the way she acts on screen and get rid of those annoying mannerisims, another example of this would be her tour de force performance in The Graduates. Nida was just a supporting character in Miguelito but of course she dominated the entire film which i guess was one of the reasons why Nida was honored instead of Maricel in 1985.