The Cinemalaya Film Festival has always been a significant avenue for works that are “social and political commentaries”, including Martial Law-themed movies that bagged major awards: Pisay (2007), Sigwa (2010), Aparisyon (2012), Respeto (2017), Liway (2018), and ML (2018).

PISAY won awards in 2007 for Best Director (Auraeus Solito), Best Production Design, and Audience Choice.

SIGWA’s Tirso Cruz III bagged the Best Supporting Actor in 2010.   

APARISYON won Best Sound in 2012.

RESPETO won in 2017 seven awards: Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Dido de la Paz), Best Sound, Best Editing, the Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC) Award and the Audience Choice.

LIWAY received in 2018 a Special Jury Commendation and the Audience Choice. Kenken Nuyda earned Special Jury Citation for outstanding performance.

ML won Best Editing in 2018 along with Eddie Garcia as Best Actor.

PISAY revolves around teenage students of the Philippine Science High School (known as Pisay) during the politically volatile years of the Philippines in the 1980s.

Directed by Auraeus Solito and written by Henry Grajeda, the young students learn that they are neither isolated from the real world, nor are they exempted from living real lives. They discover the world outside the four corners of the school and the chaos of the Marcos dictatorship, erupting into the People Power revolution in 1986, being replicated within the school as they struggle to graduate.

It chronicles their journey of self-discovery as they go through the joys and pains of adolescence.

SIGWA, meaning “storm”, spans 40 years of Philippine social unrest. It centers on Dolly who returned to the Philippines after more than 30 years to know more about the daughter she left in the care of one of her friends. She reconnects with her friends in the most turbulent of circumstances: the first few years of Martial Law, including the infamous First Quarter Storm.