Metro Manila Film Festival 2016 Ranking and Awards

I grew up watching MMFF films back when Mama still pays for my cinema tickets. She, of course, had the final say on what films we should watch so I remember watching the heavy drama ones like Mano Po 1 to 3, Jose Rizal, Tanging Yaman, Dekada '70, Bagong Buwan, etc. These are actually great films so I never really considered MMFF to be a "bad" festival.

I think it only started to dwindle a bit when then MMFF Chairman Bayani Fernando said in an interview that the three films to win first, second and third Best Picture will be based from the movies' box office numbers and even before that, award winners were deemed questionable and controversial. Star Cinema for one always had great entries, until they skipped a year or two after their films Bagong Buwan and Dekada '70 failed to win the big categories as expected.

I'm not really sure about the timeline but I remember MMFF being problematic even before despite having quality films. I think it was until mid to late 2000s when studios started to pass movies with more "commercial appeal". Thus, we were left with sequels after sequels and even combination of movies we have seen before.

That's why I think this year MMFF did not really change, instead I think it is back to its true form perhaps with better chair and jury. I thoroughly enjoyed this year's selections, and I'm happy to see that a lot of people do too. And since I've already seen all eight entries.. here comes the fun part, my personal ranking and awards:

RANKING

1. Sunday Beauty Queen

2. Die Beautiful

3. Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 2 #ForeverIsNotEnough

4. Oro

5. Saving Sally

6. Seklusyon

7. Vince and Kath and James

8. Kabisera

Director: Baby Ruth Villarama, Sunday Beauty Queen

Runner up: Jun Robles Lana, Die Beautiful

Ensemble: Oro

Runner up: Die Beautiful

Actor: Paolo Ballesteros, Die Beautiful

Actress: Eugene Domingo, Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 2 #ForeverIsNotEnough

Runner up: Irma Adlawan, Oro

Supporting Actor: Christian Bables, Die Beautiful

Runner up: Lou Veloso, Die Beautiful

Supporting Actress: Mercedes Cabral, Oro

Runner up: Rhed Bustamante, Seklusyon

Screenplay: Die Beautiful

Editing: Seklusyon

Cinematography: Seklusyon

Score: Seklusyon

Sound: Seklusyon

Production Design: Seklusyon