Tumandok wins YCC Best Film, John Lloyd Cruz bags Best Performance

Tumandok, the powerful and lyrical debut feature of Iloilo-based filmmakers Richard Jeroui Salvadico and Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay, leads the winners of the 35th Young Critics Circle Film Desk Awards, taking home Best Film over five other nominees. The Cinemalaya entry from Southern Lantern Studios tells the story of a young Ati girl determined to defend her community’s ancestral land from the weight of bureaucracy and society. It also bagged two other honors: Best First Feature and Best Sound and Aural Orchestration.

The YCC cites Tumandok for “its ambitious yet restrained storytelling, striking visuals, and powerful example of community cinema that decenters the auteur while conveying both the hope of dreaming and the limits of well-meaning governance.”

Meanwhile, actor John Lloyd Cruz clinched his second YCC Best Performance Award for his masterful turn in Moneyslapper. Building on his earlier award-winning role in Historya ni Ha (2021), Cruz delivers a performance of extraordinary range and control, embodying nihilism and vengeance with a presence that is both commanding and unsettling.

Moneyslapper also won Best Editing for its inventive pacing and fearless playfulness that sustain the film’s wild imagination from start to finish. The editing balances camp and control, guiding the viewer through shifting tones and surprises without losing coherence.

Another Southern Lantern Studios film, The Gospel of the Beast, garnered two awards: Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography and Visual Design. Its screenplay was cited for restrained yet confident storytelling that follows a teenage boy’s journey of discovery amid a world shaped by violence, loss, and power — marked by narrative economy and moral subtlety. The film’s cinematography and production design was commended for its powerful visual language evoking the culture of manhood with realism and tension, transitioning seamlessly from neorealist grit to suspenseful precision.

Tumandok’s win for Best Sound and Aural Orchestration recognizes its clear, balanced, and deeply rooted sound design that lets both the landscape and the community speak. The film’s quiet yet textured soundscape — highlighting the collaborative music of the Ati People of Kabankalan and Nagpana — enriches its storytelling with authenticity and cultural depth.

YCC named two recipients for Best First Feature: Tumandok, for its remarkable ambition, clarity of vision, and quiet confidence rare in a debut work; and Kono Basho, for its assured and sensitive portrayal of grief and reconciliation through a Filipino daughter’s introspective journey to her estranged father’s funeral in a Japanese city rebuilding from the 2011 tsunami.

The awarding ceremonies for film years 2023 and 2024 will be held in the third week of November at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Below is the complete list of 2024 winners.

BEST FILM: Tumandok (directed by Richard Jeroui Salvadico and Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay)

BEST PERFORMANCE: John Lloyd Cruz (Moneyslapper)

BEST SCREENPLAY: The Gospel of the Beast (Sheron Dayoc and Jericho Aguado)

BEST EDITING: Moneyslapper (Noah Loyola)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY AND VISUAL DESIGN: The Gospel of the Beast (Cinematography: Rommel Sales; Production Design: Harley Alcasid)

BEST SOUND AND AURAL ORCHESTRATION: Tumandok (Music: Paulo Almader and the Ati People of Kabarangkalan and Nagpana; Sound: Lamberto Casas Jr., Kevin Padilla, and Alexis Tomboc)

BEST FIRST FEATURE: Kono Basho (Jaime Pacena II) and Tumandok (Richard Jeroui Salvadico and Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay)

Established in 1990, the Young Critics Circle Film Desk is composed of interdisciplinary scholars and critics from the country’s leading universities.

The members who participated in this year’s deliberations are Ian Harvey Claros (Chair; Ateneo de Manila University), Aristotle Atienza (Ateneo de Manila University), John Bengan (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid/University of the Philippines Mindanao), Christian Jil Benitez (Ateneo de Manila University), Emerald Flaviano Manlapaz (University of the Philippines Diliman), Lisa Ito-Tapang (University of the Philippines Diliman), Skilty Labastilla (Ateneo de Manila University), and Andrea Anne Trinidad (Ateneo de Manila University).