The Luna Awards are awards given annually by the

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 ...

(FAP) to recognize the outstanding achievements of the Filipino film industry. The first awards were presented in 1983 in

Pasay Pasay, officially the City of Pasay ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasay; ), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 440,656 people. Due to its location jus ...

. It is considered to be the Philippine counterpart of the

Oscars 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 ...

. It used to be known as the FAP Awards until in 2005 when it got its current name. Since 2007, the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

started holding simple awards ceremonies due to lack of government funding and reduction of its share from MMFF earnings. This also caused some delays for ceremony scheduling.

History

In 1981, the Executive Order 640-A was passed by then President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

. The order mandated that the Film Academy of the Philippines should recognize outstanding film achievements annually. The first awards was presented on April 27, 1983 in

Manila Film Center The Manila Film Center is a national building located at the southwest end of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay, Philippines. The structure was designed by architect Froilan Hong where its edifice is supported on more th ...

which gave awards to the best films of 1982. It was known as the Film Academy of the Philippines Awards, shortened as FAP Awards. In 2005, FAP held a naming contest to give a unique name for the awards and Luna was chosen. The awards for 2009 films (28th Luna Awards) were not given due to budget constraints. The Academy still count it as part of the numbering pattern of the awards even though it was not held.

Statuette

In 2005, Luna was chosen as the new name for the awards from the 221 names submitted to the contest. Romeo Cando and Baltazar dela Cruz won the prize of ₱5000 for naming it. The word "

Luna Luna commonly refers to: * Earth's Moon, named "Luna" in Latin * Luna (goddess), the ancient Roman personification of the Moon Luna may also refer to: Places Philippines * Luna, Apayao * Luna, Isabela * Luna, La Union * Luna, San Jose Roma ...

" means moon in different languages.

is also the Roman goddess of moon. It is also can be reflected in the idiom "shoot for the moon" which means to aspire for the seemingly unreachable because winning a Luna Award is something difficult to achieve. Indirectly, the choice of Luna is also a way to pay homage to

Juan Luna Juan Luna de San Pedro y Novicio Ancheta (, ; October 23, 1857 – December 7, 1899) was a Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century. He became one of the first recogni ...

. A painting which was made by Luna inspired production designer Angel "Ulay" Tantoco in making the design of this statuette in 1981. Luna is a long-haired woman with a flowing dress which represents the muse of arts. She holds a wreath and stands on twelve circular steps that represent all of the guilds of the Academy. She is made of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

cast and weighs four kilograms.

Voting process

For a film to eligible, it should be released and have a commercial run for at least three days from January 1 to December 31 of the previous year. The voting process of Luna Awards was formulated by the Academy with the help of

Asian Institute of Management The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) is an international management school and research institution. It is one of the few business schools in Asia to be internationally accredited with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Busines ...

(AIM). It was partially implemented in 2004 and fully implemented in 2005. It is done by a three-body system composed of the citers, nominators and voters. A citer can also be a voter but cannot be a nominator. The citers indicate whether a work should be cited or not. The cited works move on the next round. Ten seats are allocated for each guild focused on the professions of: *Direction *Performance *Screenplay *Cinematography *Production Design *Editing *Musical Score *Sound Another ten seats are allocated for a non-category guild, totaling to 90 seats. In the second round, a nominator should be a previous nominee in any major film awards like Luna,

FAMAS The FAMAS (''Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne'', "Assault Rifle from the Saint-Étienne Weapon Factory") is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured in France by MAS in 1978, a year after the Austrian Ste ...

, Urian and

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 ...

. Five seats are assigned for each profession, adding up to 40 seats. They would rank all cited works from best to worst, with the two to five highest scorers becoming the nominees. To become a nominee in Best Picture, a film should have three nominations and one of these nominations should be in Best Direction or Best Screenplay. The nominees would then move on the last round where voters would cast their votes. Fifteen seats are designated per profession and another fifteen for a non-category guild, numbering to 135 seats. The winners would then be announced in the awards night.

Ceremonies

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Hall of Fame

An individual is inducted to the Luna Awards Hall of Fame if he/she won at least five competitive awards. Years listed are based on when they garnered their fifth trophy. Their total number of awards are also listed. *Willy Cruz (1987): 13 awards *Romy Vitug (1988): 8 awards *

Phillip Salvador Phillip Mikael "Ipe" Reyes Salvador (born Felipe Reyes Salvador; August 22, 1953) is a three-time FAMAS award-winning Filipino film and television actor. Acting career Salvador made his film debut in 1971 with ''Adios Mi Amor''. He toiled in ...

(1994): 8 awards *Edgardo Vinarao (1991): 7 awards *

Ricky Lee Ricardo Lee (born as March 19, 1948) is a Filipino screenwriter, journalist, novelist, and playwright. He was conferred the Order of National Artists of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022. Starting in 1973, he has written mor ...

(1996): 7 awards *Augusto Salvador (1996): 7 awards *

George Canseco George Masangkay Canseco (April 23, 1934 – November 19, 2004) was a Filipino composer and former politician. He composed numerous popular Filipino songs. Early years Canseco studied and graduated with a Liberal Arts degree at University of ...

(1996): 6 awards *Ramon Reyes (2000): 6 awards *Rolly Ruta (1989): 5 awards *Vic Macamay (1998): 5 awards *

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 ...

(2006): 5 awards

References

External links

FAP/Luna Awards
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Official Website of the Film Academy of the Philippines
{{Philippine film awards Luna Awards Awards established in 1983 Philippine film awards Award ceremonies in the Philippines