MediaCorp wins record haul at New York Festivals

SINGAPORE: Asia’s leading media company, MediaCorp, has won a record haul of awards at this year’s New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards.

MediaCorp is the parent company of Channel NewsAsia.

The documentary, ’The End/Beginning — Cambodia’, tells stories of harrowing escapes experienced by millions of Cambodian refugees through one protagonist’s personal journey. It won one of two gold awards for MediaCorp’s Channel NewsAsia, at this year’s New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards.

It was also one of nine accolades received by MediaCorp at the awards ceremony on Tuesday night. In all, Channel NewsAsia won six out of the nine awards going to MediaCorp.

Helen Sim, Programming Manager (Television) at Channel NewsAsia, said: "This award honours the world’s best from over 50 countries, such as the USA, Europe and Asia.

"We are also competing against the leading broadcasters, satellite stations, cable networks. So we are honoured that our products are actually picked and recognised by the international judges."

Channel NewsAsia, which prides itself on providing global audiences with an Asian perspective, sees the awards as reinforcing its drive to look for innovative ways of telling stories.

Ms Sim added: "For example, for the documentary, ’The End/Beginning’, we used illustrations and graphics to replace the use of archived footage. For ’Crimson’, we used crime stories to bring out the social issues that Asia is currently facing. So I guess such innovative ways of telling the story resonated with the judges."

Of the 61 entries submitted by MediaCorp, five other documentaries received silver medals, and two, bronze medals. This is an improvement from last year’s one bronze and two silvers.

Some of the documentaries recognised at this year’s ceremony were also featured on MediaCorp’s Channel 8 and Channel U.

The annual New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards is now into its 55th year.

—CNA/ac