Mediacorp wins 24 awards at New York Festivals TV & Film Awards 2023, including 6 golds

SINGAPORE: Mediacorp won 24 awards at this year’s New York Festivals TV & Film Awards, including six golds.

The company also took home 11 silver and seven bronze awards, it said in a media release on Wednesday (Apr 19)

CNA’s documentary and current affairs programmes made up the majority of Mediacorp’s wins. It also picked up one finalist honour at this year’s New York Festivals Radio Awards.

The winners were announced at the New York Festivals’ virtual Storytellers Gala on Wednesday.

One of the six golds went to a CNA documentary in the Best News Documentary/Special category.

Documented by CNA’s China correspondent Low Minmin, CNA Correspondent: The Shanghai Lockdown examines Shanghai’s April 2022 lockdown. The lockdown affected 26 million residents and “caused widespread public anger over issues such as crowded quarantine facilities, difficulties in accessing food and loss of income”, said Mediacorp.

Another CNA documentary, Never Out of Reach, clinched two gold awards in the Best Camerawork and Heroes categories.

Produced by Just Another Production, it follows four schools in Pakistan, China, India and Thailand, and shows how some of Asia’s forgotten communities are getting a new lease of life through educating their children.

CNA’s Riot Island, produced by Peddling Pictures, took home a gold award in the History & Society category. It looks at the history of Singapore’s Pulau Senang, which was transformed into a prison without bars in the early 1960s. The documentary also won a silver and bronze award in other categories.

Forgotten Children – Rohingya Refugees clinched gold in Current Affairs. It shows the plight of vulnerable Rohingya children taking refuge in Malaysia following the genocides of 2010. The documentary, produced by Threesixzero Productions, shows how they struggle to live in a new country without access to formal education.

The sixth and final gold went to Click to Ransom for Docudrama. Produced by Peddling Pictures, the documentary recounts a Japanese hospital that was affected by a ransomware attack, causing its staff to be locked out of the system. The hospital staff were then forced to postpone surgeries, turn away emergency cases and switch to a paper-based system.

On top of the 24 awards, Mediacorp also picked up 41 finalist honours.

“We are tremendously honoured to have our content recognised annually on a global stage at the New York Festivals TV & Films Awards,” said Mediacorp CEO Tham Loke Kheng.

“This year’s 65 accolades, including six gold awards, are a strong validation of our creative and production capabilities, and are a shining mark of the passion and commitment of our production teams to constantly push the boundaries of excellence,” she added.

“Congratulations to our production partners and my fellow colleagues for doing us proud once again!”