Brocka was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 1985, for "making cinema a vital social commentary, awakening public consciousness to disturbing realities of life among the Filipino poor". He was also posthumously named Philippine National Artist for Film in 1997.

His films got nominated and won different prestigious awards locally and internationally. Some of these are in British Film Institute Awards, Cannes Film Festival, FAMAS Awards, Faro Island Film Festival, Gawad Urian Awards, among others. In almost all of these events, he won "Best Director", "Best Film of the Decade", "Best Direction", etc.

Lino Brocka was born in Pilar, Sorsogon in 1939. Despite his poor upbringing he managed to flourish academically and won a college scholarship in the country’s leading academic institute, the University of The Philippines. He joined the Philippine Educational Theatre Association where he met its founder Cecille Guidote, which led to the making of his first film, 1970’s Wanted: Perfect Mother, a box-office hit based on The Sound of Music, the only film he has made that was not heavy on social injustice and drama. From then on, he created films that was more personal, his filmography depicting the plights and suffering of the Filipino people. Brocka’s films are very character driven, magnifying the oppression and neglect of the common citizen, the poor everyman barely scrapping by while fighting off abuse from the system. He often cast unknown actors to focus more on the story and not on the celebrity. He believes that acting will be more natural if the actors can relate with the scenes and the story. He also discussed themes of sexuality on his films despite this theme being during those times. His films highlight the marginalised and ignored sectors of society- the slum dwellers, prostitutes, street hustlers, as well as those who were discriminated against simply because of gender or sexuality – subjects that no other director dared to touch, especially while under the Marcos dictatorship.

In 1984, he was arrested and imprisonmened along with other journalists and filmmakers for fighting for freedom of speech and stating that the Marcos dictatorship had taken control of the Philippine media for its enforcement of censorship. After his release, in 1986, he was appointed by President Corazon Aquino as a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission to draft a new constitution for the country where he eventually resigned.

He died in 1991 because of a car accident and he received an award for the National Artist for Film in 1997.