Modify featured products feed

Is it possible to show featured products which are filtered by category, manufacturer or name?
At the moment I'm using this code snippet:

<?php require($template->get_template_dir('tpl_modules_featured_products.php',DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base,'templates'). '/tpl_modules_featured_products.php'); ?>

which seems to load:

require($template->get_template_dir('tpl_columnar_display.php',DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base,'common'). '/tpl_columnar_display.php');

The feed doesn't follow the instructions made at the backend for featured products e.g. show buy button

Also I have a display issue I can't figure out atm at the bottom of these grids at the front-page
There (where you could imagine a buy buttom) is space created by a span for .taxaddon and .vsk

I haven't set any padding / margin there, it doesn't appear anywhere else.
No matter whether I give taxaddon and vsk a clearfix or a br
Can't figure it out right now :-(

Is it possible to show featured products which are filtered by category, manufacturer or name?

Filtered by you (as in changed code) or by the customer (as in a drop down change maybe)

Good question!
Filtered by me to present more relevant featured products (e.g. by category) to the customer in free creatable sections (e.g.) on the front-page.