KUCHING, Jan 13: Cheng Rexen of Taiwan and Kim Nam Joo of South Korea were named Asian Television Awards (ATA) 2019 Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Leading Role awards respectively.
Cheng received the award for his performance in ‘Schrodinger’s Cat’ while Kim received the award for her performance in ‘Something in the Rain’.
More than 40 categories were contested in the 23rd edition of the ATA. The awards ceremony was held for the first time in Sarawak and Malaysia as a whole, representing the industry’s foremost recognition to independent production houses in Asia.
At the live award show on Saturday night (Jan 12, 2019), the remaining 16 out of 45 awards categories were up for grabs and the respective winners were chosen by an expert panel of over 50 judges from across the region.
The judges were hand-picked based on their expertise and tremendous experience in local and international entertainment scene.
Jirayu Tantrakul of Thailand received the Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in ‘Kom Faek’ (The Lost Art) while Sinjai Plengpanich also from Thailand received the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in ‘Sri Ayodhaya’.
Other notable award recipients were ‘Something In The Rain’ (South Korea) for the Best Drama Series; ‘Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai’s Daughter’ (Japan) for Best Single Drama or Telemovie Programme; JTBC (Korea) for Cable and Satellite Network of the Year and Formosa Television (Taiwan) for Terrestrial Broadcaster of the Year.
On Friday night’s live show, more than 50 top Asian celebrities from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Mongolia and the Philippines, to name a few, attended the 23rd ATA live show.
They included Derek Chun, James Kumar, Ase Wang, Maylada Susri, Maneerat Kum-Uan, Hu Gua, Ah Xiang, Louis Scott, Ray Macdonald, Jirayu Tantrakul, Hoang Yen Shibi and many more.
The live award show also had a remarkable line-up of top Asian celebrities performing on stage including K-pop group SF9, Qu Wanting, Via Vallen, Alvin Chong, Gary Valenciano, Kiana Valenciano and Winnie K to name a few.
Despite his busy schedule, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg spared his time to attend the prestigious awards show as the guest-of-honour, accompanied by wife Datuk Amar Juma’ani Tun Tuanku Bujang and Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
Past participants of ATA include more than 200 channels across Asia, such as KBS, NHK, HBO, CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, Al-Jazeera, TV18, Discovery Networks, Imagine Group, Viacom International Media Networks, Astro, Media Prima, PT Televisi Indonesia, Mediacorp, CGTN, PCCW, Formosa Television, ABS-CBN, BBTV, SMG and many others.
For more information and latest updates on ATA, visit its Facebook page at @Asiantvawards. — DayakDaily
