THIS YEAR’S Cinemalaya Independent Festival concluded with an awards ceremony on Oct. 12 at Shangri-la Plaza in Mandaluyong.
“The Next 24 Hours,” produced by Thomasian alumna Anna Velario, won Best Short Film. The cast of the full-length film “Open Endings,” by Artlets alumni Nigel Santos and Keavy Eunice Vicente, went home with the Best Ensemble Performance award.
Here is the full list of Cinemalaya 2025 winners:
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SHORT FILMS
Best Screenplay
For its sheer authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and cultural depth, for its powerful affirmation of indigenous identity amid modern distractions, and for its heartfelt portrayal of a young Kalinga girl preserving her heritage through music.
The award for Best Screenplay goes to Handiong Kapuno for “Figat.”
Best Director
For its deft control of tone, emotional precision, and psychological depth; for
transforming a young man’s haunting homecoming to his former orphanage into a meditation on guilt, privilege, and belonging rendered with remarkable sensitivity and vision.
The award for best direction goes to Elian Idioma for “I’m Best Left Inside My Head.”
Special Jury Prize
For its fearless vision, poetic fury, and striking fusion of myth and memory; for transforming the West Philippine Sea’s wounds into a powerful cinematic allegory of sovereignty and rage.
The Special Jury Prize goes to Maria Estela Paiso for “Kay Basta Angkarabo Yay Bagay Ibat Ha Langit” (Objects Do Not Randomly Fall From the Sky).
Best Short Film
For its hauntingly tender portrayal of trauma and survival; for rendering silence, fear, and resilience through rotoscope animation with profound sensitivity and compassion; for using art as advocacy to give voice to those still struggling to Speak.
The Best Short Film goes to “The Next 24 Hours” by Carl Joseph Papa.
READ: ‘The Next 24 Hours’ confronts aftermath of sexual violence
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FULL-LENGTH FILMS
Best Sound
For its immersive soundscape that transforms silence, sea, and sorrow into an echo of buried trauma; for amplifying the unspoken anguish of a young man whose cry for help is met with indifference, deepening his isolation and pain.
The award for Best Sound goes to Imman Verona for “Raging.”
READ: Conquering silent battles in ‘Raging’
Best Musical Score
For its inspired fusion of ethnic Mindanao rhythms and cinematic nostalgia; for weaving ancestral memory with the lyricism of old Tagalog screen romances to deepen a film on colonial violence and female artistry.
The award for Best Musical Scoring goes to Teresa Barrozo for “Cinemartyrs.”
READ: Cinemartyrs revisits ‘forgotten’ history
Best Editing
For its seamless weaving of testimonies, memories, and silences into a resonant tapestry of truth; for transforming the stories of the detained, the disappeared, and then fallen into a cohesive and deeply affecting chronicle of courage.
The award for Best Editing goes to Che Tagyamon and Arnex Nicolas for “Bloom Where You Are Planted.”
READ: ‘Bloom Where You Are Planted’ encourages Filipinos to be seeds of liberation
Best Production Design
For transforming archival fragments, survivor testimonies, and lived spaces into a seamless visual world where fiction and history converge; for reconstructing 1972 Naga City with both authenticity and reverence — from the fluvial devotion of Peñafrancia to the ruins of the Colgante Bridge — and for crafting a setting that honors memory as much as it reveals loss.
The award for Best Production Design goes to Jeric Delos Angeles for “Padamlagan.”
READ: The search for justice in ‘Padamlagan’
Best Cinematography
For its evocative interplay of light and shadow that mirrors a young man’s
silence and awakening; for capturing the humid stillness of Romblon’s seas and forests as landscapes of both trauma and truth.
The award for Best Cinematography goes to Theo Lozada for Raging.
READ: Conquering silent battles in Raging
Best Screenplay
For its witty and poignant writing that turns a son’s desperate longing to meet his legendary father into a journey of truth and self-discovery; for peeling away the myth of a larger-than-life movie idol to reveal the fragile heart of fatherhood.
The award for best screenplay goes to Tim Rone Villanueva and Herlyn Alegre for “Child No. 82.”
READ: ‘Child No. 82’ unmasks illusions of hero worship and machismo
Best Supporting Actor
For his chilling yet deeply human portrayal of a once-feared Martial Law general now fading into the fog of dementia; for embodying both the terror of tyranny and the fragility of remorse.
The Best Performance of a Supporting Actor goes to Nanding Josef for “Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan.”
Best Supporting Actress
For her restrained yet searing portrayal of a mother holding her dignity amid abandonment and illusion; for embodying both the ache of loss and the quiet strength of survival as she watches her son chase the myth of a father who was never there.
The award for Best Performance of a Supporting Actress goes to Rochelle Pangilinan for “Child No. 82.”
Best Direction
For her bold and visionary authorship that fuses cinema, history, and haunting memory into a singular act of resistance; for reclaiming women’s voices within the nation’s buried traumas through guerrilla filmmaking that is both mystical and political.
The award for Best Direction goes to Sari Dalena for “Cinemartyrs.”
Best Actor
For his restrained yet piercing portrayal of a political strategist confronting disillusionment and moral exhaustion in a nation consumed by lies; for embodying the quiet despair and stubborn hope of a man searching for meaning amid history’s erasure.
The award for Best Performance of a Leading Actor goes to Jojit Lorenzo for “Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan.”
Best Actress
For her searing and compassionate portrayal of a daughter haunted by the sins of her father—a onetime enforcer of a brutal regime—yet bound to protect him in his frailty; for embodying a conscience torn between love, guilt, and moral reckoning.
The award for Best Performance of a Leading Actress goes to Mylene Dizon for “Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan.”
Special Jury Prize
For transforming the act of filmmaking itself into a gesture of remembrance and revolt, for fusing guerrilla filmmaking, mysticism, and archival memory to confront the ghosts of violence—both historical and cinematic—with conviction, and for her luminous homage to the first women filmmakers of Philippine cinema who turned art into testimony.
The Special Jury Prize goes to “Cinemartyrs” by Sari Dalena.
Best Ensemble Performance
For the seamless chemistry, emotional depth, and playful vitality of four performances that breathe life into a rare story of chosen family and intimacy; and for capturing with honesty, humor, and grace the enduring bonds between queer women navigating love, loss, and friendship.
The special award for Best Ensemble Performance goes to the cast of “Open Endings” by Nigel Santos and Keavy Eunice Vicente.
READ: ‘Open Endings’ explores the fluidity of queer connections
Best Film
For its powerful and deeply humane portrayal of political activists uprooted by violence yet steadfast in their pursuit of justice and belonging; for transforming the struggle for land, peace, and dignity in Cagayan Valley into a meditation on home, hope, and resilience.
The award for Best Film goes to “Bloom Where You Are Planted” By Noni Abao.
