The iWant volleyball series is up for Kids: Live Action, five years after director Ivan Andrew Payawal’s Gameboys competed in the same category.
In 2021, Gameboys was the only Philippine nominee at the International Emmy Kids Awards, then a separate ceremony from the main gala. The boys’ love (BL) series, directed by Ivan Andrew Payawal, followed a teenage gamer and his fan who fall for each other over video calls during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and it competed in the Kids: Live Action category.
Payawal is back in that category in 2026. Love at First Spike, the 2025 iWant original series he directed, is the only Philippine nominee at the 2026 International Emmy Awards. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which honors television produced outside the United States, announced the nominees on September 23.
A Basketball Captain on the Volleyball Team
The eight-episode series follows Uno Santillan (Emilio Daez), the former captain of Brixton High’s basketball team, who joins the school’s boys’ volleyball varsity to hold on to his scholarship. The volleyball team is known for its queer members. Reign Parani plays Farrah Salcedo, captain of the girls’ team, and Sean Tristan plays Jared Aragon, captain of the boys’ team and Farrah’s cousin. River Joseph, currently in CinePanalo’s Stuck on You, plays Parker Robinson, Uno’s former basketball teammate.
When it announced the nomination, ABS-CBN cited the show’s themes of acceptance and its portrait of the pressure on student athletes. The series premiered on June 20, 2025, and all eight episodes stream free on iWant, ABS-CBN’s streaming platform.
The Competition
Love at First Spike is up against Chile’s 31 Minutos: Calurosa Navidad, the Netherlands’ De Achterblijvers (Those Left Behind), and the United Kingdom’s Dexter Procter the Ten-Year-Old Doctor. The nominees will attend the International Emmy World Television Festival in New York from November 20 to 22, ahead of the awards gala on November 23.
Payawal’s Second Nomination
Both of Payawal’s nominated series center on queer teenagers, and both were made for young audiences. Gameboys, produced by The IdeaFirst Company, competed against entries from Australia, Germany, and Argentina in 2021. Love at First Spike, produced by ABS-CBN Studios, faces Chile, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The two shows came out of very different conditions. Gameboys started as a web series during the pandemic, shot remotely from the actors’ homes. Love at First Spike is a full production with a sports setting and a large ensemble.
Gameboys also helped launch Elijah Canlas, who played the gamer Cairo opposite Kokoy de Santos. Canlas has since become one of the busiest young actors in Filipino film, and in September his performance as student activist Edgar Jopson earned strong reviews for Edjop.
Earlier Philippine Nominations
Gameboys and Love at First Spike join a longer list of Philippine International Emmy nominees. In 2016, Jodi Sta. Maria was nominated for Best Actress for Pangako Sa ‘Yo, and the ABS-CBN telenovela Bridges of Love competed in the Telenovela category. In 2022, Erik Matti’s HBO miniseries On the Job was nominated for TV Movie/Mini-Series.