SINGAPORE – Suria actor Jeff Catz was the only winner from Singapore in the major acting categories at last night’s Asian Television Awards held at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.
He won the Best Supporting Actor award for Suria drama Bunga Tanjong.
Catz, 48, was visibly overjoyed onstage, expressing his gratitude to a long list of colleagues, friends and family members. He says: “This is the first (award), but this is not going to be the last.”
Other local winners included Romanian-Singaporean Chinese actress Carla Dunareanu, who snagged Best Comedy Performance for Channel 5 drama Rojak.
But it was lauded Taiwanese drama A Touch of Green that was the biggest winner of the night, winning four awards – Best Direction (Fiction), Best Original Screenplay, Best Leading Actress (Cheryl Yang) and Best Supporting Actress (Tien Hsin).
The series set in post-war Taiwan had won six awards at October’s Golden Bell Awards in Taiwan.
All eyes were on the race between Channel 8-bred star Christopher Lee and his younger brother Frederick for the Best Actor Award.
But the coveted prize went instead to actor Chen Kun-Chang of Taiwan drama The Taste of Dang-Liang’s Family.
Christopher Lee, 45, was nominated for his role as a pragmatic record label boss in local music-themed drama Crescendo.
Frederick, 40, was nominated for his role as a zealous cop in crime thriller drama Turning Point, a Malaysian production.
Much to the delight of Korean drama fans at the event, this year’s mega military romance Descendants Of The Sun – starring Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo – was given the Best Drama Series award.
The two and a half hour ceremony included performances by homegrown singer JJ Lin, British pop singer Charli XCX, Indonesian crooner Rossa and Amber Liu of K-pop girl group f(x).
The Asian Television Awards is an annual event that honours excellence in production and performance in TV broadcasting across Asia.
This article was first published on Dec 02, 2016.
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