Timow's Turf

The Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), a longtime Philippine cinema authority, recently decided to branch out. After decades of handing out golden statuettes, someone within the committee thought, " Podcasts and midday TV are booming—let's create a spin-off!" Perhaps due to the outdated, strict criteria of PMPC and KBP coping with the lingering crisis of 2020, this indeed occurred. Enter the 1st FAMAS Broadcast Arts Awards. It was billed as a grand evening at the Manila Hotel celebrating the best in TV, radio, and digital media. But when a legacy film institution enters the chaotic realm of broadcasting and internet culture, chaos ensues. To gauge how well the academy’s refined tastes match reality, a poll was conducted among everyday listeners and viewers, who predicted winners in 28 categories (two were excluded due to open-ended questions). The results? The statistics expose a huge, absurd gap between public favorites and the FAMAS judges’ choices. He...

FOR DECADES , Philippine entertainment was controlled by gatekeeping, with success tied to playing by the "Press Clubs" or private organizations' rules for TV awards.  But last week, FAMAS—the country’s oldest and most prestigious award body—decided to stop watching from the sidelines. The inaugural FAMAS Broadcast Arts Awards , set for May 4 at Manila Hotel, is more than a new event date. It's a deliberate move to challenge the "antiquated mindset" that has caused Philippine TV awards to fall into favoritism, network bias, and irrelevance. The PMPC Problem: A Legacy of Favoritism To understand why the FAMAS expansion is crucial, we must confront the elephant in the room: the PMPC Star Awards for TV. Since 1987, the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) has held a near-monopoly on recognizing television excellence. However, longevity does not always equate to integrity. The Star Awards have long been marred by whispers—and often shouts—of network favoritism. T...

WHEW.  The PMPC Star Awards for Television have been awarded. It’s that time when stars dress to the nines, networks rally behind their shows, and online fans on Facebook and Twitter show support for their idols.  Here, we just want to see if our predictions come true. (Don't worry, there's no real money involved in this patch, unlike those online gambling/casino sites that are sadly sponsored for the recent event.)  Honestly, making guesses beforehand is half the fun, but as I’ve learned over the years, the results can humble you. This catch-up edition's awards did exactly that. Some of their bets paid off, but others… well, let’s just say PMPC has a way of surprising us. So let’s sit down and go through the categories. I’ll share how the predictions stacked up, what truly happened, and my personal thoughts as I watched the results unfold. The Predictions vs. The Reality Here’s a breakdown of who won last Sunday and how accurate the predictions were. Program Winners BES...

The Philippine Movie Press Club logo Last Thursday, I wrote on WordPress about how the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) has been desperately trying to cope with the post-ABS-CBN shutdown era. True enough, they proved my point last Sunday, March 16, when they released the winners on their official Facebook page ahead of the main event on March 23. Why? Probably because they just didn't want to waste hours building suspense for an event that would be aired a month later. This kind of delay in broadcasting awards shows isn't new, but it does raise a few questions about the relevance and excitement of TV awards in the streaming age . That said, they did hold back on revealing the “Big Seven” awards : Best Drama Actor & Actress Best Drama Supporting Actor & Actress Best Male & Female TV Hosts Best TV Station These major categories will be saved for the main event in the Dolphy Theatre (probably the swan song for the venue before they face the wrecking ball)—perha...

Back in 2014, I went on a rant on WordPress about the PMPC Star Awards for TV , frustrated by what felt like blatant favoritism toward ABS-CBN .  Year after year, if the Kapamilya network had nominations, it seemed like a guaranteed win, leaving fans of other networks questioning the credibility of the awards. It’s not that they didn’t produce great shows, but the perceived bias was hard to ignore. The PMPC, composed of tabloid reporters and entertainment press, should theoretically be neutral. But it felt like a local version of the Emmys , except with favoritism that was a little too obvious. Fast forward to early 2020 , right before the pandemic flipped the world (and the industry) upside down, and the PMPC publicly supported ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal . We all know how that ended—outright rejection, thanks to the former president’s ego trip . (Speaking of that former president. He's now in the Netherlands facing an ICC trial.) This deliberate turn amidst the unpredictable wo...