Beleaguered FAP to revive Luna Awards this year to prove ‘we still exist’

Judy Ann Santos won her Luna Award for best actress in 2020 for “Mindanao.”

Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) officer in charge Manny Morfe said the organization is reviving its Luna Awards this year after a two-year break in order to tell everyone that “we still exist.”

Morfe said mounting the awards ceremony once again is significant because no awards have been given since 2020. “Also, we want everyone to know that we still exist and that this is our mandate for the industry,” he told Inquirer Entertainment on Thursday.

Morfe, who took over the reins after FAP director general Vivian Velez resigned in July 2022, also said that the awards show is “making a comeback in time for the resurgence of local cinema after enduring the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The FAP also oversees and assists 10 filmmaking guilds, which help determine the Luna winners, via a peer-based judging basis. “This has been a practice of the FAP for about 10 years or more,” he said.

Resurrection

The guilds have started screening and evaluating outstanding commercially released Filipino films in 2022. The nominees and winners shall be proclaimed in a ceremony on a date and venue to be announced soon.

“This year, the Luna Awards will underscore the resurrection of our film industry as it learns from lessons of the past and prepares for the challenges of tomorrow,” said Morfe. “From themes, technology and distribution platforms, cinema has metamorphosed into a broader and diverse art form. It has learned to adapt well to the recent economic challenges, as well as the evolving tastes and demands of its audience. Like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon to take a new form, strength and power, cinema aims anew to sustain and enrich its classic role—to inspire, provoke and empower people’s lives. It is in this spirit that the 39th Luna Awards will take on and impart.”

Representatives for Oscars

As the duly accredited local counterpart of the American Academy Awards, FAP is created by virtue of Executive Order 640-A in 1981. It is mandated to choose and send the Philippines’ entry to the International Feature Film category of the Oscars.

Manny Morfe
FAP officer in charge

“Our representative for the Oscar Awards [organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] will be announced by early September. We are currently consolidating films that may qualify. Meanwhile, members of the jury are awaiting the said films,” Morfe said.

The 39th Luna Awards is presented by the FAP and supported by the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation or Mowelfund. INQ