The Maria Clara Awards is the first formal

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...

award-giving body of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It was established in 1950 by a group of writers from the Manila Times Publishing, Co., which included

National Artist National Artist is an honorary title issued by some states as a highest recognition of artists for their significant contributions to the cultural heritage of the nation. An equivalent title, People's Artist, has been known in countries of the f ...

Dr. Alejandro Roces, regarded as the Father of the Maria Clara Awards. It was the initial answer of the Philippines to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

s, an institution for recognizing talents in the

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

movie industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post pr ...

.Maria Clara Awards

History

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

ended, the two pre-war movie studios, LVN and

Sampaguita Pictures Sampaguita Pictures was a Philippine film production company. It was named for the Philippine national flower, sampaguita. Though no longer functioning, the company's Sampaguita Compound remains in Quezon City. History Sampaguita Pictures was es ...

, resumed their

movie production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

and were later joined by two other

movie studios A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

, Premiere Productions and Lebran International, to form the "Big Four" studios who held the brightest stars and top artisans of Philippine movies in the 1950s and 1960s.

1950

The first formal Filipino answer to the Oscars was formed by Manila Times Publishing, Co. To make a statuette which would be given out to the best of the best,

Guillermo Tolentino Guillermo Estrella Tolentino (July 24, 1890 – July 12, 1976) was a Filipino sculptor and professor of the University of the Philippines. He was designated as a National Artist of the Philippines for Sculpture in 1973, three years before his dea ...

was asked to sculpt the bronze Maria Clara Award, which bore the likeness of

Maria Clara Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

, one of the characters in

Jose Rizal Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galile ...

's Noli Me Tangere.

1952

Due to various reactions about the voting procedures of the Maria Claras (various factions have pointed out that the Maria Claras were voted on mostly by movie columnists), a group of movie writers, Atty. Flavio G. Macaso (who became the first president of FAMAS), future FAMAS president Vic Generoso, future FAMAS winner Mario Mijares Lopez, Paulo Dizon, Amado Yasoma and Eddie Infante established what would become as the second oldest film industry award-giving body in Asia, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences or FAMAS. With the creation of FAMAS, the Maria Claras folded up.

2006

Maria Clara Award's descendant, the

FAMAS Awards The Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards (also known as the FAMAS Awards) are the annual honors given by the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), an organization composed of award-winning writers and movie columni ...

, is undergoing a leadership crisis and registration revocation from the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

. The latter did not allow for the FAMAS to hold any of their major functions, which included an awards night. To go around the ruling of the SEC, FAMAS President Jimmy Tiu, with the support of Dr. Alejandro Roces, held the Maria Clara Awards on October 13, 2006, as a temporary replacement for the FAMAS Awards until the issues on leadership and with the SEC can be settled. The Maria Clara Awards held in 2006 was numbered 55th to correspond with the two Maria Clara Awards presentations in 1951 and 1952 and fifty-three FAMAS Awards presentations from 1953-2005. The 55th Maria Clara Awards, the first Maria Clara Awards in 54 years (and the first defunct awards ever resurrected in Philippine film awards history), was held on October 13, 2006, at the Golden Fortune Restaurant in Manila. A low-key event which was attended by

Film Academy of the Philippines Established in 1981, the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) is the Philippines' official counterpart of the United States' Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The FAP was founded through Executive Order 640-A issued by the President o ...

Director-General and FAMAS nominee Leo Martinez and National Commission for the Culture and the Arts Executive Director Cecille Guidote-Alvarez, among others, most of the winners were not present during the awards due to short notice (invitations were handed out three days before the awards).

List of previous winners

The following are incomplete lists of winners on the first two Maria Clara Awards, the forerunner of FAMAS Awards, and the 2006 Awards:

First Maria Clara Awards (1950)

Second Maria Clara Awards (1951)

55th Maria Clara Awards (2006)

References

{{FAMAS Awards

Maria Clara Awards The Maria Clara Awards is the first formal film industry Film awards bodies in the Philippines, award-giving body of the Philippines. It was established in 1950 by a group of writers from the Manila Times, Manila Times Publishing, Co., which inclu ...