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 Mindanao lead many aspects of the 2019 MMFF |
The Metro Manila Film Festival has just ended. Celebrating Filipino films, the Festival awards Filipino directors and films for their outstanding film-making aspects. With the festival announcing their 49th Award Winners on the 27th of December 2019, let's take a look into the best Filipino films of 2019.
Background
The Metro Manila Film Festival is an annual event held every year since 1975 (previously, the Manila Film Festival ran from 1966-1975). The festival runs from December 25 into the first week of January. During this period, the Philippines cinemas only show the Filo films that the jurors have chosen as the nominees (this excludes IMAX and 3D cinemas). It is one of only two Philippines' film festivals that exclude non-Filo content from cinemas, with the second being Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino which takes places in August.
The Metro Manila Film Festival awards film-makers for their films, being one of the biggest award ceremonies in the Philippines. They are awarded by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the Manila Broadcasting Company. They were first awarded in 1975, with newer awards such as Most Gender-Sensitive Film being awarded from 2003-2013 and Best Float being awarded from 1992, due to the large parade that takes place to announce the start of the festival.
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Records
As with most film awards, the Metro Manila Film Awards have their own records that have amassed over time.
- Most wins go to Jose Rizal with 17 wins in 1998. The film won everything except Best Actress.
- Most best director wins are held by Joel Lamangan. He has won 4 times between 1995-2018.
- Most best actors wins are held by Christopher De Leon with 7 wins between 1976-2008.
- Most best actress wins are currently held by Nora Aunor with 8 wins between 1978-2012.
- Most best supporting actors' wins are shared between Pen Medina, Cesar Montano, Phillip Salvador, Johnny Delgado, Ronald Valdez and Dick Israel with 2 wins each.
- Most best supporting actresses' wins are shared between Eugene Domingo and Cherie Gil, both with 3 wins.
- Most combined awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Director are held by Cesar Montano with 6 joint awards: he has won Best Actor 3 times, Best Supporting Actor 2 times and Best Director once.
- Most combined awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress are held by Amy Austria; she has won Best Actress 3 times and Best Supporting Actress once.
The 10 Top Grossing Entries
*Please note, US$ is accurate to the currency exchange rate
as of the 17th of February.
Rank | Year | Film | Box Office Gross* |
1 | 2018 | ₱596 million US$11,791,752.72 | |
2 | 2017 | ₱571 million US$11,297,132.22 | |
3 | 2015 | ₱529 million US$10,466,169.78 | |
4 | 2019 | ₱500 million US$9,892,410.00 | |
5 | 2014 | ₱455 million US$9,002,093.10 | |
6 | 2013 | ₱421 million US$8,329,409.22 | |
7 | 2013 | ₱401 million US$7,929,113.35 | |
8 | 2012 | ₱393 million US$7,770,926.55 | |
9 | 2015 | ₱385 million US$7,612,739.75 | |
10 | 2018 | ₱383 million US$7,573,193.05 |
You can see the top 30 grossing films here.
The 2019 Submissions
The Metro Manila Awards work a little different compared to other award shows around Asia. For Metro Manila, numerous films are submitted, watched by a jury and then the top eight films are shown as part of the film festival and are put up for awards.
The eight submissions for the 2019 Metro Manila Film Festival are as follows:
Metro Manila Film Festival also encourages student short film entries to the Festival. This year, the topic was "Philippine Mythology and Regional Stories (Myths, Legends & Folktales)". Over 1,000 student films were submitted, and eight were chosen to air during the film festival alongside the feature films,
The Student Short Film entries are as follows:
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Winners
Again, the Metro Manila Film Festival does things a little differently. Whilst only having eight films, the jury awards the main awards and some special ones whilst not nominating any. Some films do have nominations, but these are only for 2-3 categories, so they have been ignored.
The awards were held on December 27th, 2019 and your winners are as follows:
Main Winners
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Other Awards
- The winner of the Gatpuno Antonio J. Villegas Cultural Award was Mindanao.
The Gatpuno Antonia J. Villegas Cultural Award is an annual event created by the festival in honour of former mayor Antonio Villegas. It awards lifetime achievement awards to films in the annual film festivals, and that portrays Philippine culture and Filipino people to the world. - The winner of the Fernando Poe Jr. Memorial Award was Mindanao.
The Fernando Poe Jr. Memorial Award is an annual award for excellence, in honour of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. - Culion and Write About Love won the Special Jury Prize
- Mindanao also won the Gender Sensitivity Prize
The Gender Sensitivity Award is an award for films that have the best representation of gender sensitivity or best raise concern of gender-equality issues within the motion picture. Before Mindanao, the award was not presented from 2014-2018.
The Metro Manila Film Festival celebrates the opening of the festival with a parade, with a float for each film submitted. The winner of Best Float was Mindanao. |  |
Short Film Winners
Stats
- Mindanao won 11 awards in total and where nominations are possible, was nominated for 17.
- Sunod was nominated for 16 of the awards but only won 3.
- Write About Love was nominated for 14 but won 8.
- Miracle in Cell No. 7 was nominated for 3, whilst Triple Trouble and Mission Unstapabol were nominated for one; all 3 failed to win.
- Culion was nominated for 1 award but failed to win, only securing the Special Jury Prize.
And that's it from the Metro Manila Film Festival until this December!
Have you seen any of the 8 films?
Or any of the Short Films?
Do you think Mindanao taking so many awards was fair or do you think others should have won where Mindanao did?
Are there any other Filipino Award ceremonies you'd like to hear about?
Let me know!
Edited by: Yuanwei (1st editor)
