Actress Maja Salvador gave Philippine cinema its first award at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) after winning Best Actress at the 1st Asia Contents Awards in South Korea.
Salvador won for her roles as Lily Cruz and Ivy Aguas in the hit Filipino television series “Wildflower”, a finalist in the Best Asian Drama category of the newly established Asia Contents Awards. The BIFF’s Asian Film Market announced the winners on October 6.
Maja Salvador’s portrayal in the ABS-CBN series, first aired in 2017, has been hailed as primetime TV’s “embodiment of women empowerment and fighting against oppression”. The Filipina star had previously won Best Actress in a Leading Role from the Asian Academy Creative Awards, also for Wildflower.
“Playing Ivy Aguas and Lily Cruz was a great challenge and pleasure for me as an actor. To paint an honest picture of what she went through knowing that viewers empathize, cheer and from time to time hate her for her choices,” Salvador said in her acceptance speech.
“Thank you for this great honor for the Philippines,” the Asian TV Awards finalist added.
Maja Salvador shared the honor of being in the first batch of the winners of the Asia Contents Awards together with the following:
- Best Creative Award: Yongkyu Kim (Producer, Studio Dragon) — Mr. Sunshine
- Best Asia Drama: “Hormones: The Series” (Thailand), “Faculty” (Singapore)
- Excellence Award: Kim Jae Joong (Actor and Singer, Korea)
- Best Actor Award: Lei Jia Yin (China) — The Longest Day in Chang’an; Kim Nam Gil (Korea) — The Fiery Priest; Yamada Takayuki (Japan) — The Naked Director
- Best Actress Award: Yao Chen (China) — All Is Well; Maja Salvador (Philippines) — Wild Flower
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Raymond Lee Wai Man (Hong Kong)
- Best Writer Award: Lu Shih-yuan (Producer and writer) — The World Between Us; Park Hae Young (Writer, Korea) — My Mister
- Best Rising Star: Fang Rong (Actress, Singapore) — Faculty
- Best Newcomer: Kemisara Paladesh (Actress,Thailand) and Sananthachat Thanapatpisal (Actress, Thailand) — Hormones: The Series; Jin Xiong Hao (Director) and Zhuang Dafei (Actress, China) — Mountains and Ocean;
Morita Misato (Actress, Japan) — The Naked Director
ABS-CBN reports that Wildflower is still airing in New Caledonia, Polynesia, and Reunion with the recent partnership of ABS-CBN with Ampersand fiction, a French content distributor. The Maja Salvador-starrer is also currently showing in several French-speaking African countries and will soon air in Madagascar this October with the Kapamilya network’s deal with Startimes.
Five other Filipino films are screening at the ongoing 24th BIFF:
- Jericho Rosales-starrer “Basurero” by Eileen Cabiling competes at the Asian Short Film Competition
- “John Denver Trending” by Arden Rod Condez is competing in the New Currents section
- The Philippines’ bet to the 2020 Oscars, “Verdict” by Raymund Ribay Gutierrez, is in a non-competition screening
- “Lingua Franca” of Filipino auteur Isabel Sandoval and produced by multi-awarded Filipino Broadway producer Jhett Tolentino
- “Mindanao” by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Filipino member, Brillante Mendoza
SEND congratulations in the comments below to Maja Salvador and the Wildflower team for showing excellence at the Busan International Film Festival!
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