The Korean-produced series “The Glory” won the best drama series award on Thursday at the Asian Academy Creative Awards Gala Final. Thai-produced TV movie “Hunger” was named best feature film.
The awards are organized by the Asian Academy of Creative Arts (AACA) a.k.a Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA) and are held alongside the Asia Television Forum and Market (ATF) in Singapore. The AACA “was established to honor creative excellence and serve as a peer judged pinnacle of achievement in content creation, performance and media production.”
By the conclusion of the gala ceremony, Singapore, Japan and India had each claimed seven prize wins. Indian performers notably dominated the acting category with Rajshri Dashpande named best actress in a leading role for her performance in “Trial By Fire” and Vijay Varma named best actor in a leading role for his performance in “Dahaad” (Amazon Prime Video).
Analyzed by platform, Netflix was the evening’s winner with eight awards. Amazon’s Prime Video won five awards. Singapore public broadcaster Media Corp won four. Viu won three awards. Japan’s NHK won three awards. Disney+ came away empty-handed.
The Philippines received the inaugural ‘Asian Academy of Creative Arts Legacy Award’ from 2023 chairman Clement Schwebig (Warner Bros Discovery). In announcing Philippines’ ABS-CBN as the recipient, Schwebig said, “this award is presented to an organization that has demonstrated outstanding achievement, great innovation, or industry leadership, especially in the face of adversity. Our inaugural recipient embodies all of those attributes and then some.” ABS-CBN was previously The Philippines’ leading TV broadcaster, but lost its licenses after clashing with former president Duterte. The company has instead reinvented itself as a content studio.
AACA 2023 Awards (selected)
Best Animated Program or Series (2D or 3D)
“ONI: Thunder God’s Tale” (Megalis, Tonko House, Netflix) (Japan)
Best Documentary Program (one-off)
“The Cleaning Company” (Walking Fish Productions & GoodThing Productions, SBS Australia) (Australia)
Best Documentary Series
“Nature’s Hidden Miracles: The Secret Life of Plants” (NHK, Curiosity, Autentic/Rai) (Japan)
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Vijay Varma in “Dahaad” (Prime Video) (India)
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Rajshri Deshpande in “Trial By Fire” (Netflix, Endemol Shine, House of Talkies) (India)
Best Direction (Fiction)
Itaru Mizuno for “Rebooting” (Nippon TV, AX-ON, Maseki Geinosha) (Japan)
Best Drama Series
“The Glory” (Netflix, Hwa & Dam Pictures) (Korea)
Best Feature Film
“Hunger” (Netflix, Songsound Production) (Thailand)
AACA 2023 Winners (by territory)
India 7
Japan 7
Singapore 7
Korea 3
Malaysia 2
Philippines 2
Thailand 2
Australia 1
China 1
Hong Kong SAR 1
Indonesia 1
Myanmar 1
Taiwan 1