SINGAPORE, Feb 7— This year’s Star Awards nominations have been announced, and leading the pack is The Journey: Tumultuous times – the second part of a trilogy chronicling the history of Singapore – with a staggering 17 nominations.
Following closely behind are football-themed drama World At Your Feet and psychological drama Against The Tide with 13 nods apiece.
All three shows are competing for Best Director, Best Actress, Favourite Male Character and Favourite Female Character, while Tumultuous Times and Against The Tide are vying for Best Drama Serial, Best Screenplay and Best Actor.
The nominees for the Best Actor prize include Chen Han Wei (Blessings), Christopher Lee (Against The Tide), Qi Yuwu (C.L.I.F. 3), Shaun Chen (Tumultuous Times) and Thomas Ong (Three Wishes).
Shaun Chen, who received rave reviews for his performance while Tumultuous Times was airing, admitted that he was unsurprised by his nomination, which he celebrated by “opening a bottle of wine and celebrating by myself”.
“I did my best to give a good performance, so I hope everybody could see that and will give me support,” he said.
As for his chances of winning, he’s not hedging his bets. “Usually, the hot favourite doesn’t win the award, so that would be very sad! I don’t want to overthink it. I just want to take it easy and enjoy the show,” he said.
“The other nominees are my seniors and people I admire very much, so to be nominated alongside them is my honour.”
In the running for Best Actress are Felicia Chin (Tumultuous Times), Joanne Peh (C.L.I.F. 3), Rebecca Lim (Yes We can), Rui En (Against The Tide) and Yvonne Lim (World At Your Feet).
Felicia Chin, who described her reaction as “surprised”, “elated” and “over the moon”, said the nomination is especially meaningful because the role was so different from her personality.
“Because I’ve always had this sunshine personality, I’ve always been entrusted with roles that suit my personality,” she said.
“The producers did speak to me about their concerns about whether I could manage, especially the scenes at the end of the drama (including rape and childbirth). It was a very big personal challenge, which I willingly took on, and I’m very glad I didn’t disappoint.”
But, she says, she’s not too fussed about whether she wins because in the years since her last Best Actress nomination, which was for 2009’s The Golden Path, she said, “I’ve changed my outlook on acting.
“I think getting the award would really be a super huge cherry on top of the cake, but I think being nominated in the midst of so many good performances over the whole year is already a pretty large red cherry on top of my cake.”
Over in the supporting categories, newbies are ruling the roost, with Aloysius Pang (Against The Tide) running against Chen Han Wei (Tumultuous Times), Chen Shu Cheng (Blesings), Zhang Zhen Huan (Against The Tide) and Zhu Hou Ren (In The Name Of Love) for Best Supporting Actor; and Carrie Wong (Tumultuous Times) competing with Joanne Peh (Tumultuous Times), Julie Tan (Three Wishes), Paige Chua (Against The Tide) and Xiang Yun (The Caregivers) for Best Supporting Actress. Aloysius Pang and Carrie Wong have also been nominated for Best Newcomer, alongside Hong Ling, Nick Teo and Seraph Sun.
“I didn’t expect a Best Supporting Actress nomination to come so soon,” Wong said.
“I expected that to come at in 2016 or 2017 at the earliest. So I was really very surprised when I heard the news.
“All the comments I got for Tumultuous Times were positive – people said, ‘She acts quite well for a newbie’ – so I thought I might be nominated for Best Newcomer. I wasn’t expecting Best Supporting Actress at all. When I shared the news with my dad, he said, ‘Best of luck – hope you can bring two awards home.’ Of course, I hope to at least take one home – maybe the Best Newcomer award, which I’m more confident of.”
“I felt that this day might come someday in the future, but I never expected it to come now,” Pang said, adding that when Dasmond Koh called the night before to share a rumour of his nomination, “He said something that really touched my heart. He said that finally my hard work has been recognised and that he was really thankful I had put so much effort into acting. It was a pretty emotional moment – I had tears in my eyes.”
But Pang said he is not concerned about winning.
“It may sound clichéd, but I feel I’m already a winner. My aim as far as the Star Awards are concerned has always been for the professional awards. I don’t really care much for the voting awards. A nomination is recognition of your performance as an actor. That in itself is already very comforting for me – I’m not asking for more.”
Other major nominees include those for Best Variety Show Host – Ben Yeo and Lee Teng (Finding 8), Mark Lee (Neighbourhood Chef), Pornsak for (The Joy Truck 2) and Quan Yi Fong (Black Rose 2); and Best Info-Ed Programme Host – Ben Yeo (Meet My Family 2), Bryan Wong (Hear Me Out), Pornsak (Shop Stories), Quan Yi Fong (Where To Stay) and Youyi (My HeARTland Carnival).
Catch Star Awards 2015: Show 1 live on April 19 at 7pm and Show 2 on April 26 at 7pm (Walk Of Fame at 5pm) on MediaCorp TV Channel 8. — TODAY
