A home run for The Baseball Player, Tommy Alejandrino at the 18th Cinemalaya Awards

Carlo Obispo

Carlo Obispo's The Baseball Player edged out Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan's Blue Room to win Best Film at the 18th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival during the Awards Ceremony at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Tommy Alejandrino

The Baseball Player, cited for "its sheer poignance and quiet power, for its subtle but trenchant storytelling, and for its penetrating take on the Mindanao conflict and the sad wreckage it has made of young innocent lives", also won Obispo the Best Screenplay award. The film lead's actor, Tommy Alejandrino, bagged the Best Actor Balanghai Trophy in his portrayal of a Moro child soldier who dreams of becoming a baseball player. The film also won Best Editing for Zig Dulay.

Blue Room, on the other hand, clinched the Special Jury Prize as well as the Best Direction trophy for Asuncion-Dagñalan. Other awards the film won include Best Supporting Actor for Soliman Cruz, Best Cinematography for Neil Daza, and Best Production Design for Marxie Maolen Fadul.

Max Eigenmann

The Best Actress trophy went to Max Eigenmann for 12 Weeks while Best Supporting Actress was won by Ruby Ruiz for Ginhawa. Ruiz has previously won Best Supporting Actress in 2013 for Ekstra and Best Actress in 2019 for Iska.

Other awards handed out for the Full Length category were Best Sound for Pepe Manikan (Bula Sa Langit), and Best Musical Score for Isha Abubakar (Retirada).

Zig Dulay

For the short film category, Zig Dulay was the man of the moment with his Black Rainbow bagging Best Film and Best Screenplay. Gabriella Serrano, on the other hand, won Best Direction and the Special Jury Prize for her silent film Dikit.

The NETPAC award went to 12 Weeks (Full Length) and Black Rainbow (Short). The award is given by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema to promote Asian cinema and discover and recognize exceptional films and talents.

The Audience Choice awards went to Kargo by TM Malones (Full Length) and to Mga Handum nga Nasulat sa Baras (The Dreams That Are Written On The Sand) by Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay and Richard Jeroui Salvadico (Short).

Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan and Gabriella Serrano

The wins by Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan and Gabriella Serrano marks only the second time that the best director awards for the both the short and full length films went to female directors. The first time was during Cinemalaya's maiden year in 2005 with Rica Arevalo for ICU Bed #7 (Full Length) and Sigrid Andrea Bernardo for Babae (Short) emerging as the best directors.

Cinemalaya 18 Full Length Film Directors

The 18th Cinemalaya saw the return of the full length feature films in competition and onsite screenings at the CCP and select SM and Ayala cinemas after two years of online editions with only short films in competition.

The competing films are being shown in select partner cinemas nationwide until August 16, 2022. Cinemalaya then heads to Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte on September 9 to 15, 2022. Finally, the festival will have an online run in October 2022 via the CCP Vimeo channel.