A Night To Remember: Winners of the first-ever FAMAS Short Film Festival
For the first time ever, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences, or FAMAS, held its Short Film Festival Awards at the Music Museum in Greenhills on May 10, 2025. Emerging or established, student or working, the festival aimed to curate a diverse set of films that would highlight the bustling creativity often overlooked in these 7,641 islands.
The inaugural short film festival received over 500 entries from all over the country, and from these came the 27 official selections that were nominated in their respective categories—short film, student film, regional film, advocacy film, and documentary.
The full list of winners for the 2025 FAMAS Short Film Festival is presented below.
Best Student Film
KIYAW by Jericho Jeriel Bassig
Best Documentary Film
NO MAN LEFT BEHIND by Ella Mage and Emir Kahn Bautista
Best Regional Film
PAGTAGHOY SA HANGIN by Kyle Erika Saycon
Best Advocacy Film
BENEPISYO by Angelito J. De Guzman
HELLO, MR. JENKINS by Gian Arre and Flo Reyes
Best Child Performer/Actor
Earl Quintana (PARAPO by Jhonn Bobier)
Best Actress
Mina Cruz (AS THE MOTH FLIES by Gayle Oblea)
Best Actor
Soliman Cruz (ANG HULING LIHAM by Miguel Potestades)
Best Production Design
Harley Alcasid (ONE DAY, THREE AUTUMNS by Bridget Rabo Ng-Ting)
Best Music & Sound Design
Glemuel Rigo and Junelle Tecson (KIYAW by Jericho Jeriel Bassig)
Best Editing
Gayle Oblea and Noah del Rosario (AS THE MOTH FLIES by Gayle Oblea)
Best Cinematography
Jhonn Bobier, Lance Allen, and Justine Mark Uy (PARAPO by Jhonn Bobier)
Best Screenplay
KITA MO ‘TO? by Adam Dominic Dumaguin
Best Director
PARAPO by Jhonn Bobier
Best Picture
AS THE MOTH FLIES by Gayle Oblea
MORE LOCAL NEWS
Returning for the 29th year, the French Film Festival reveals the dates and lineup of festivities for this year's edition in partnership with upcoming film festivals QCinema and Animahenasyon.
“Anong klaseng pagmamahal ang kaya mong panindigan?” Latest JoshLia romance film the Cathy Garcia-Sampana-helmed ‘Always Yours, Never Mine,’ premiered its trailer last September 18. Cast members in attendance reflected on the romantic questions they hope it will bring out of audiences.
Unleashing their Pinoy voice chakras and giving their full 200% hataw on stage, Live A.I.D.S. 36 set the stage for UP SAMASKOM’s annual comeback before a rainbow-colored ocean, ever so giving the spotlight to the nation’s main vocalists — its people — belting out critical social commentary through comedy and satire.
In a region where the silent but persistent film culture resides, the first-ever release of the Saliduwa Film Fest transformed the City of Baybay into an avenue of experimental playground for local cinema.
MORE FILM REVIEWS
Neo Bryce Largo’s ‘Sandy’ is a tender exploration of growing up and grappling with memories that they could no longer hold on to, proving that regional films are made possible because of love and the community that cherishes regional cinema.
In ‘Naza’, 24 IDF officers admit that the destruction of Gaza was administered with full knowledge of its civilian casualties. This has already been reported on by Palestinians, but if you need confirmation from Israeli insiders, this is the film for you.
‘Possible Love’ is among the most important films of our time, a sobering account of the insidious violence of everyday existence, enabled by a system in which the means to inflict cruelty becomes one and the same as the means to endure it.
At least in terms of sheer style, ‘Street Fighter’ more than attempts to embrace its own anachronistic artificiality: rather it runs into it. Characters’ special moves and costumes are translated with animated accuracy; the fights, while sadly often plagued with a focus on close-ups that prevent a full show of the stuntwork at times, possess quite a bit of energy when it launches into several in a row, and the overall color palette and set design are surprisingly poppy when it counts.
The latest offering from DC Studios takes a horrifying route as ‘Clayface’ brings one of Batman’s rogues’ gallery to life in its menacing, melting form, letting loose and embracing the body horror sub-genre.
MORE TV REVIEWS
The disarmingly unassuming aesthetic of ‘Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk’ belies an unabashedly sapphic, interpersonally insightful, and wholeheartedly genuine craftwork that believes in the capacity of alcohol, art, and a lot more to help light the way in the increasingly widening pathway of college life.
More dispensable than diabolical, the final season of ‘The Boys’ is another example of contemporary television’s growing paradox: the longer a series tries to stay in the game, the less certain it seems of how to stick the landing.
‘Big Mistakes’ is a fun, if patient, comedy that demands your patience at first, but is quite the thrill and will give you satisfaction in exchange for your time. If you loved ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and miss Levy’s signature brand of cringe-with-a-heart, this is worth checking out.
‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 marks a brave and bold outing for the DCU — one that emphasizes character development, with the cross-dimensional adventures serving as both a backdrop and a slingshot toward the universe’s future.
With both its sharpest writing and structuring in years, this year's eight-episode run is Sunny at its most character-centric, hilarious, and relatively grounded. Still would've wanted more episodes, though.


Being excited, honored, and pressured (the good kind) may seem like generic emotions for an upcoming film production, but to the cast and crew of Ilaya Ilaya Studio’s ‘Birdsong’ it is a rare omen for pioneering plights never before soared.