The 12th Metro Manila Film Festival was held in 1986.
Romy Vitug won the Best Cinematography Award for Celso Ad.
Castillo's Payaso while the director's son, Chris Ad Castillo, received the Best Supporting Actor Award for Augusto Buenaventura's Bagets Gang.
For the first time, it did not give out the traditional first and second Best Picture awards as well as the other two categories: Best Story and Best Screenplay.
According to one of the jurors, Tingting Cojuangco stated: "No one of the seven entries deserved these awards..." He added that they: "...would like to express [their] concern over the current state of the Philippine movie industry as reflected in the entries to the year's MMFF...[The entries] failed to reinforce and inculcate positive Filipino values by portraying negative stereotypes, imitating foreign films and perpetuating commercially-oriented movies...".