Asian Academy Creative Award Winners Announced

The 2025 Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA) ceremony, held on December 4th in Singapore, delivered a thrilling night of tight competition, culminating in the Chinese Mainland securing both the Best Feature Film and Best Drama Series awards.

The prestigious night, which serves as the largest showcase of Asia-Pacific content and creatives globally, took place at Singapore’s historic Capitol Theatre.

In a spectacular scripted double win, the films MuMu and Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty: To The West claimed the most coveted fiction prizes. The victory for Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty: To The West in the Best Drama Series category was particularly tense, as the Chinese Mainland production narrowly defeated Korea's highly favored series, When Life Gives You Tangerines, by a margin of only 0.06 in the night's final announcement.

The awards ceremony was marked by several stunning upsets and historic moments. Nine-year-old Singaporean actress Ivory Chia made AAA history by becoming the youngest winner ever. She claimed the Best Actress in a Supporting Role award for her performance in Emerald Hill: The Little Nonya Story, securing the victory in a tense tiebreaker vote.

Japan also celebrated major triumphs, with Yuriyan Retriever, the lead actress of the Netflix women’s professional wrestling series The Queen of Villains, scoring a significant win. Retriever bested internationally recognized talent, including Australia’s Cate Blanchett and Korea’s Minha Kim, in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category. The Queen of Villains also collected the award for Best Direction (Fiction).

In total, eleven nations and territories registered wins across forty categories, underscoring the tight competition where the top contenders were frequently separated by margins as small as a single point.

The final tally demonstrated the widespread distribution of excellence across the region:

• 6 Wins: Japan, Singapore

• 5 Wins: Korea, India

• 4 Wins: Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong (SAR)

• 3 Wins: Taiwan

• 2 Wins: Australia, Malaysia, Philippines

• 1 Win: Thailand

Hong Kong SAR’s four golden Goddess statuettes were won amid a somber show of industry support following the tragic fires that occurred there last week.

Meanwhile, streaming platforms saw significant wins. Prime Video’s The Traitors India and the Netflix drama Black Warrant each took home two statuettes, including the award for Best Entertainment Host claimed by Karan Johor.

Korea secured five total wins, which included Best Comedy, Best General Entertainment for the MAMA Awards, and Best Original Production by a Streamer for the series Study Group. In the documentary categories, hard-fought wins were claimed by Australia (In Films), Japan (NHK), and Singapore (Mediacorp). Additionally, India’s Amish Tripathi was honored with the Best Factual Host award for his work with Warner Brothers Discovery.

The Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA) is organized by the Asian Academy of Creative Arts (AACA), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to honoring creative excellence. The AAA serves as a peer-judged pinnacle of achievement across film, television, digital, streaming, and emerging technologies throughout the Asia Pacific region. The AACA also works to develop and encourage the next generation of industry professionals through its Academy Campus.