Two of the Philippines’ main film awards announce winners within two days of each other this month. The Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) names its Star Awards for Movies winners on October 25 at the Winford Resort and Casino Manila. The 74th FAMAS Awards follow on October 27 at the Manila Hotel. Earlier this month, the 49th Gawad Urian gave Best Film to a documentary, Bloom Where You Are Planted, over the leading nominee Quezon. A film can win in one room and lose in another because each award is decided by a different group.
The Boy Who Won All Four
Once in a while, all four rooms agree. At the 2004 awards, 12-year-old Jiro Manio took top acting honors from every body below for the drama Magnifico: Best Actor at the Gawad Urian, where he became the youngest winner in the category, Best Actor at the FAP Awards (now the Luna Awards), Movie Actor of the Year at the PMPC Star Awards, and Best Child Actor at FAMAS. Winning all four is what Philippine film calls a grand slam. Two decades later, in January 2024, after hard years away from the spotlight, Manio brought that Urian trophy to the vlog Pinoy Pawnstars and sold it to host Boss Toyo for ₱75,000. That trophy is what all this voting produces: one object, handed out by four different groups, each with its own idea of excellence.
FAMAS: The Oldest, Voted by Writers
The Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences, or FAMAS, dates to 1952 and was the country’s only film awards body until 1976. It is an organization of movie writers and columnists, designed after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the United States, and it originally used a name close to that academy’s until the American group objected. FAMAS replaced an earlier set of honors, the Maria Clara Awards. Its voters began as movie writers, columnists, and studio publicists. Today they include movie columnists, writers, and winners of the Palanca Awards, the country’s premier literary prizes.
Gawad Urian: The Critics’ Answer
The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, the Filipino film critics’ group, formed on May 1, 1976, and gave its first Gawad Urian in 1977. Its founders had served as judges at FAMAS after that organization invited critics in to help choose winners and clean up its image. They then set up their own awards. “Urian” means a standard for gold, and “gawad” means award.
The Manunuri has shown it will go its own way. It skipped the awards for 1987 films, citing a lack of deserving winners, a first in Filipino awards history. It named Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino the best film of 2004, a film with no nomination from any other awards body that year. One member has written that the group’s deliberations in the late 1980s ran from 1 p.m. until past 1 a.m.
Luna Awards: Peers Vote by Guild
The Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), set up under a government order, first presented its awards in 1983 and later named them after the painter Juan Luna. The Luna system is peer voting: actresses vote on the Best Actress nominees, editors on the editing nominees, and cinematographers on cinematography. In 2019, the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), the government’s film agency, ran the voting as secretariat. The voters that year were all past Luna nominees and winners, or nominees and winners of other major awards. The Lunas have skipped years, in one case because of budget constraints, and in 2016 Heneral Luna took 10 of the 12 trophies.
PMPC Star Awards: The Entertainment Press
The PMPC is a nonprofit of entertainment journalists and editors in TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines, with about 50 members. It held its first film awards in 1985, and this year’s is the 42nd edition. Its ballot runs separate mainstream and indie tracks, so each has its own Movie of the Year. The 41st edition honored 2024 films, with Uninvited the biggest winner at six awards.
Why the Same Film Wins in One Room and Loses in Another
This year’s ballots show it. I’mPerfect leads the PMPC Star Awards field with 13 nominations. At FAMAS, it has five, while Quezon and In Thy Name lead with 12 each. Journalists, writers, critics, and guild peers weigh a film differently, and the nomination counts reflect that.
At a Glance
- FAMAS: movie writers and columnists, since 1952
- Gawad Urian: film critics, since 1977
- Luna Awards: guild peers, since 1983
- PMPC Star Awards for Movies: entertainment journalists, since 1985