The 28th

Metro Manila Film Festival The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) is an annual film festival held in Metro Manila, Philippines. The festival, which runs from December 25 (Christmas) through New Year's Day and into first weekend of January in the following year, focuses on ...

was held in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, Philippines from December 25, 2002 to January 10, 2003.

Regal Films Regal Entertainment, Inc. (formerly and more commonly known as Regal Films) is a Philippine film production company based in Pasig. It was founded by Lily Monteverde on August 19, 1962. It has produced movies of all genres; and is the oldest s ...

' ''

Mano Po ''Mano Po'' () is a 2002 Filipino drama film produced by Regal Entertainment, and an entry to the 2002 Metro Manila Film Festival. The film focuses on the lives of the Chinese Filipino community. ''Mano Po'' stars an all-star cast headed by M ...

'' was the big winner in the 2002

. The film receives a total of twelve awards including the major awards such as

Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

for

Eddie Garcia Eduardo Verchez Garcia (; May 2, 1929 – June 20, 2019), known colloquially as Manoy, was a Filipino actor, television personality, film director and producer. With almost 600 film and television roles and a career spanning seven decades, he ...

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

for

Ara Mina Ara Mina (born Hazel Pascual Reyes-Almarinez; May 9, 1979) is a Filipino people, Filipino actress, singer, endorser, and entrepreneur. Career Mina became part of the Philippine entertainment industry at 14 years of age via the youth-oriented ...

, Best Supporting Actress for

Kris Aquino Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino (born February 14, 1971), professionally known as Kris Aquino (), is a Filipino television host, actress, producer, socialite and businesswoman. Dubbed as Philippine's "Queen of All Media", Aquino has hos ...

, and

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

for

Joel Lamangan Joel Lamangan (born September 21, 1952) is a Filipino film director, television director and actor. His award-winning films includes '' The Flor Contemplacion Story'', ''Sidhi'', '' Deathrow'', ''Hubog'', '' Aishte Imasu 1941'', '' Blue Moon'' an ...

among others. The film is also the recipient of the

Gatpuno Antonio J. Villegas Cultural Awards Gatpuno Antonio J. Villegas Cultural Award is an annual event created by the Metro Manila Film Festival in honor of former mayor (''gatpuno'') Antonio Villegas. It awards lifetime achievement awards to films in the annual film festivals, and t ...

Entries

There are two batches of films in competition, the first batch was shown from December 25, while the second batch was shown on January 1, 2003.

Winners and nominees

Awards

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface. Piolo Pascual at the Star Magic Concert Tour in Ontario, CA, June 2009

Multiple awards

Ceremony information

During the "Gabi ng Parangal" held in PICC on December 27, there were some controversies:

Walking out of ''Dekada '70'' cast

The cast of the film '' Dekada '70'' walked out of the award ceremonies after

Lualhati Bautista Lualhati Torres Bautista (born December 2, 1945) is a Filipina writer, novelist, liberal activist and political critic. Her most popular novels include '' Dekada '70''; '' Bata, Bata, Pa'no Ka Ginawa?''; and '' ‘GAPÔ''. Biography Bautista was ...

failed to win the Best Story and

Best Screenplay Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

awards. Even more controversial was the decision of the judges to name the first-timer

the

for her role in

, beating multi-awarded

Vilma Santos Rosa Vilma Tuazon Santos-Recto (, born November 3, 1953) is a Filipino actress, singer, dancer, TV host, producer, and politician. She served as a House Deputy Speaker since 2019 to 2022 and as the Representative of Batangas' 6th district since ...

, who was in '' Dekada '70''.

Inclusion of two films

The producers of the films '' Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut'' and ''

Lastikman Lastikman, originally spelled Lastik Man, is a fictional character and Filipino comics superhero created by Mars Ravelo and artist Mar T. Santana. Lastikman or the original spelling of Lastik Man debuted in comics format in ''Aliwan Komiks'' ...

'' protested the non-inclusion of the two films as official entries, prompting the Metro Manila Film Festival committee to extend the annual event. Consequently, the committee extended the film screenings to seven days to accommodate two more films which did not make it to the entries.

''Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut'' issues

Speaking of the films,

Chito Rono Chito may refer to: *Chito Calvo (1903–1977), Filipino basketball player, swimmer, and coach *Chito Garcia (1924–2015), Mexican baseball outfielder and manager *Chito Gascon, Filipino lawyer, civil organizer, and human-rights activist *Chito J ...

, director of Second Best Picture '' Dekada '70'', was curious as to why was '' Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut'' named the Third Best Picture award if the officials disqualify it as an official entry. In the same way, the production team of ''Ang Agimat: Anting-Anting ni Lolo'' was also appalled to the decision of the jurors to give the Best Visual Effects award to '' Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut'' if they only use "mono", beating their use of the more advanced " Dolby Digital System".