Kuwentong Peyups
Atty. Dennis Gorecho
Three Cinemalaya films are major winners in 49th Gawad Urian
Three films from the 2025 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival are major winners in the 49th Gawad Urian awards ceremony: “Bloom Where You Are Planted”,”Cinemartyrs”, and “Republika ng Pipolipinas”.
“Bloom Where You Are Planted“ won four awards: Best Picture, Best Documentary, Best Direction for Noni Abao, and Best Editing.
“Republika ng Pipolipinas” won Best Screenplay for Renei Dimla.
“Cinemartyrs“ won Best Sound.
“Bloom” focused on the stories of three land rights activists in Cagayan Valley: Agnes Mesina (a development worker), Amanda Echanis (a jailed mother-artist-activist), and Randy Malayao (a slain peace consultant).
It was also cited as Best Film in Cinemalaya 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 film showed a photo of me and Malayao taken in 1991 when he was elected as vice president for Visayas of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). I was from Philippine Collegian of UP Diliman while Malayao was from UP Visayas. He was murdered on January 30, 2019 on his way home to Isabela.
Abao said in his speech that their victory was not just theirs alone but” for the people who continue to fight.”
The film exemplified the Supreme Court’s pronouncement in Deduro v. Maj. Gen. Vinoya (G.R. No. 254753, July 4, 2023), which stated that “red-tagging is a threat to people’s life, liberty, and security.”
“Cinemartyrs” is a 104-minute docudrama that draws inspiration from Sari Dalena’s 2001 debut, “Memories of a Forgotten War,” which examined the largely overlooked atrocities of the Philippine-American War, specifically the Battle of Bud Dajo
A young filmmaker ( Nour Hooshmand) travels to a massacre site in Jolo to shoot a documentary. The film explores themes of memory, war, womanhood, and history while paying homage to female filmmakers in Philippine cinema. As the crew films in war-scarred landscapes, they begin to feel haunted by the spirits of those who perished in the conflict.
The Battle of Bud Dajo was a counterinsurgency campaign against the Moro people in March 1906, during what Americans then called the “Philippine Insurrection.”
Cinemartyrswon Best Musical Scoring in Cinemalaya and Best Sound in Urian.
Best Musical Scoring refers to the instrumental music and background music written specifically for the film to create mood, tension, and emotion.
Best Sound encompasses everything the audience hear in the movie as the absolute total audio experience: music, spoken dialogue, clarity of actors’ voices, sound effects, and ambient environmental noise.
It won Best Musical Scoring in Cinemalaya 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.”
In “Republika ng Pipolipinas” , disillusioned farmer Cora Vitug faces eviction from her land due to a local government project. In protest, she renounces her Filipino citizenship and unilaterally establishes her own self-sufficient micronation.
“Micronation” are small, self-proclaimed entities that assert their sovereignty as independent states but which are not acknowledged as such by any of the recognized sovereign states.
As they work against the clock and face looming threats to their freedom, Cora and the citizens of Pipolipinas prove that what truly makes a great nation is not its land or its history, but the courage of its people.
Pipolipinas comes from the words ‘Pipol,’ the Tagalog spelling of ‘People,’ and ‘Pilipinas,’ the Tagalog term for ‘Philippines.’
Four other 2025 Cinemalaya films also got nominations in various categories : Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan (4), Raging (3), Child No. 82: Anak ni Boy Kana (3), and Paglilitis (2).
Cinemalaya Foundation President Laurice Guillen was given the Natatanging Gawad Urian award.
There were ties in both the Best Actor and Best Actress categories.
Best Actor awards were given to Carlo Aquino for “Bar Boys: After School” and Jericho Rosales for the historical drama “Quezon”.
The Best Actress awards were given to Odette Khan for “Bar Boys: After School” and Maris Racal for “Sunshine.”
“Bar Boys: After School” received three awards: Aquino as Best Actor, Khan as Best Actress, and Will Ashley as Best Supporting Actor.
“Quezon” received four awards: Rosales as Best Actor, Best Cinematography. Best Production Design and Best Music.
Sunshine received two awards: Racal as Best Actress and Jennica Garcia as Best Supporting Actress.
The Gawad Urian Awards, established in 1976, is the Filipino Film Critics’ measure of the artistry and skills of Filipino filmmakers.
(Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908-8665786.)