10/09/2026
The University of the Philippines Film Institute celebrates the conferment of the highest artistic recognition on Dr. Nicanor Tiongson.
Dr. Nicanor Tiongson's pioneering works of gravity and magnitude have earned him the honor of National Artist for Literature. His singularity of vision as a scholar-artist and cultural administrator is evident in the interrelationship of his many interests and efforts.
His body of writing โ playwriting, ethnography, criticism, polemics, pedagogy, historiography โ is foundational to any understanding of Philippine theatre's traditions and evolution, and of its profound and enduring influence on literature, cinema, radio, and television. The same fastidiousness carried into his work on cinema and the other arts, where he authored, edited, or produced indispensable texts, monographs, and documentaries, including the two towering editions of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. Every work is anchored on the rigor of research, a keen interest in reviving cultural practices appreciated by the common tao, and the drive to revitalize artistic forms responsive to the changing times.
He steered institutions with the same exacting hand. He was professor and chair of the UP Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas. At the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), he served as artistic director from 1986 to 1994. He gave the UP College of Media and Communication (CMC) both its journal, Plaridel, and its award for outstanding Filipino media practitioners, the U.P. Gawad Plaridel. He chaired the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, which confers the Gawad Urian, and was among the founders of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. He served as Dean of the UP CMC, has taught at the UP Film Institute for decades, and is currently its Professor Emeritus.
He brought the principles he espoused as post-EDSA Vice President of the CCP to his life's work as an overarching vision โ Filipinization rooted in historical formation and in the continuing need to foster national consciousness, democratization that respects human rights and resists any form of authoritarianism, and decentralization that recognizes the diversity and dignity of Filipino identities. They are principles the UP Film Institute continues to live by.
