For imbuing the city of Cebu with a deep seriousness of crime noir and knowingly gravity of cool irony, this film gives the Visayan movement another memorable picture that manages to make us laugh and wanders as it comments on grim realities and short history we cannot escape.

For its strange co-mingling of the visceral and the cerebral, rage and tenderness, pain and pleasure, anger and acceptance, this film breaks new ground by experimenting with cinematic language that both offends with its eloquence and stutters with unflinching honesty.

Tied with Teresa Barrozo for Paglisan (2018).

Tied with Erwin Romulo, Juan Miguel Sobrepeña and Malek Lopez for Never Tear Us Apart (2018).

For its heartbreaking story of a family told in a daring way by using voice as the main element to capture the whole emotion of the characters.