1978 Metro Manila Film Festival


The 4th Metro Manila Film Festival had its run in 1978 starting from December 25 onwards. There were nine official entries and Atsay was hailed as the Festival's Best Film.
Ian Film Productions' Atsay received the most awards, with a total of four including Best Picture Award in the highly contested 1978 Metro Manila Film Festival. The movie also won for Nora Aunor the Best Performer Award, the first and only awardee of the category. Sampaguita Pictures' Rubia Servios received two awards: Best Screenplay for Mario O'Hara and Best Editing for Jose Tarnate. RVQ's Jack n' Jill of the Third Kind was the top grosser of the festival.

Entries

Awards

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
Best FilmBest Director

  • Atsay – Ian Film Productions
  • Eddie Garcia – Atsay
    • Best PerformerBest Editing
  • Nora Aunor – Atsay
  • Jose Tarnate – Rubia Servios
    • Best ScreenplayBest Cinematography
  • Mario O'Hara – Rubia Servios
  • Romeo Vitug – Atsay
    • Best Art Direction-
  • Robert L. Lee III and Peter Perlas – Katawang Alabok
    		• -

    Multiple awards

    AwardsFilm
    4Atsay
    2Rubia Servios

    Ceremony Information

    "Noranians" versus "Vilmanians"

    The board of jurors decided to not award honors for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress for some reasons. Instead, the jurors gave Nora Aunor a "Best Performer" award for her role in the movie Atsay. Ms. Aunor beat Ms. Santos, whom fortune-tellers on the talk show of Inday Badiday had predicted would win the award for her role in the movie Rubia Servios.

    ''Atsay'' vs. ''Rubia Servios'' commentary

    In 1979, Isagani Cruz of TV Times commented about Atsay and Rubia Servios. He states: "Rubia Servios is Lino Brocka's film; Atsay is Eddie Garcia's. Nora does an excellent acting job; but so does Vilma Santos, and Rubia is a much more demanding and difficult role. Edgardo M. Reyes is an established literary figure, but Mario O'Hara is much better screenwriter. Overall, Atsay may be much more impressive than Rubia Servios. In terms of challenging our moral and legal convictions, however, Rubia Servios is much more significant."