Filipino actress and singer Ashtine Olviga and Filipino actor Jericho Rosales took home the top acting prizes at the 2026 Manila International Film Festival (MIFF), a Los Angeles-based festival now in its third year built to give Philippine and Filipino diaspora cinema a stage inside Hollywood. The Sept. 6 closing gala at The Beverly Hilton split Best Picture two ways — “Manila’s Finest” won Narrative, “58th” won Documentary — while Tony-winning Filipina performer Lea Salonga collected the festival’s Icon Award, an honor announced ahead of the ceremony.
Ashtine Olviga’s Lead Actress Turn
Olviga won Best Actress for her performance as Agnes Magtibay in “Manila’s Finest,” Raymond Red’s 1969-set crime thriller about a Manila Police District officer navigating gang violence and political maneuvering in the years before Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law. It’s a notable jump in billing: at home, the same performance earned Olviga a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 2025/2026 Metro Manila Film Festival. Abroad, MIFF recognized it as a lead. Olviga, who first broke out through the P-pop group circuit before crossing into film and television, is best known domestically for her onscreen pairing with actor Andres Muhlach in “Ang Mutya ng Section E” and “Minamahal: 100 Bulaklak Para Kay Luna.”
“Manila’s Finest” also won Best Cinematography, credited to Red himself, who both directed and shot the film. Independent filmmaking veteran Red built the story around Manila’s police force in the final stretch before the city’s civilian identity was folded into MetroCom, the military-led command that preceded the 1972 declaration of Martial Law — a fictional retelling, but one grounded in a real hinge point in Philippine history.
Jericho Rosales and the Bayaniverse
Rosales won Best Actor for playing former President Manuel L. Quezon in “Quezon,” director Jerrold Tarog’s biopic and the third and final installment in TBA Studios’ “Bayaniverse” trilogy, following “Heneral Luna” and “Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral.” The film led the 49th Gawad Urian nominations with 10 nods earlier this month, and Rosales’s MIFF win extends its awards-season momentum into an international stage.
“58th” Sweeps the Documentary Categories
“58th,” an animated documentary produced by GMA Public Affairs and GMA Pictures, won Best Picture (Documentary), and Filipino animator and filmmaker Carl Joseph Papa won Best Director for it. The film chronicles the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre, regarded as the deadliest single attack on journalists in Philippine history, through the recollections of Reynafe Castillo, the daughter of photojournalist Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay — recognized as the massacre’s 58th victim, whose remains have never been recovered. Papa, working from a screenplay he co-wrote with Aica Riz Ganhinhin, blends rotoscope animation with archival footage to retell the tragedy for audiences who may not have lived through it. “58th” premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January, screened at Annecy in June, and made its Philippine premiere at Cinemalaya in August, ahead of MIFF’s recognition. Castillo herself received the festival’s Shining a Light Award for her involvement in the project.
Lea Salonga’s Icon Award
Salonga’s Icon Award and a career retrospective screening of “Sana Maulit Muli” were announced ahead of the ceremony, alongside the festival’s posthumous Lifetime Achievement Awards for Nora Aunor and Pilita Corrales, accepted by their shared granddaughter, actress Janine Gutierrez. Salonga received the honor the same week she became the first Filipina to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Three years into its run, MIFF’s footprint keeps widening: a period crime thriller, a historical biopic already dominating the local critics’ circuit, and an animated documentary about a real massacre all left the same Beverly Hills ballroom with trophies, alongside a Walk of Fame star and two posthumous honors for performers who spent their careers proving Filipino stories belonged on stages like this one.