Star Awards

Star Awards 红星大奖
Star Awards 2017
Awarded for	Excellence in Chinese Language entertainment in Singapore
Sponsored by	BioSkin Healthiest Hair London Choco Roll (2017)
Country	Singapore
Presented by	Mediacorp
First awarded	1994
Television/radio coverage
Network	Mediacorp Channel 8 Mediacorp Channel U Toggle

The Star Awards (Chinese: 红星大奖) is an annual ceremony held in Singapore where the media organisation Mediacorp, recognises entertainers under their employment for outstanding performances of the year. Unlike similar entertainment ceremonies, the ceremony also celebrates how popular individual entertainers are based on how much fans are willing to collectively spend through a voting system that elevates their popularity.

History

The first ever annual Star Awards event was held in 1994. In the first three years of the Awards, MediaCorp handed out just 10 Most Popular Artistes awards (five for each gender) instead of the current 20 (10 for each gender).^[1]

The Best Actor and Best Actress awards were only introduced in 1995. Prior to that, it was more of a popularity contest, with Li Nanxing, Chew Chor Meng and Zoe Tay winning the Most Popular Actor and Actress award.^[1]

In 1995, a top gun of Hong Kong's TVB was one of the guests at the Star Awards. When giving out the award, he commented on the significance of the awards in recognizing television talents. He wished that Hong Kong will have similar television award ceremony in future. In less than 2 years after his return to Hong Kong, the TVB Anniversary Awards was born.

The Star Awards has traditionally been held at the TV Theatre on Caldecott Hill. Though there were some exceptions, the first being in 1996 where this annual event was being held at Harbour Pavilion, and 2006, when it was held at St James Power Station.^[1]

Previously, technical category awards (e.g. Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Variety Show Producer, etc.), newscaster and current affairs awards and, for a time, the Young Talent Award (for child actors) were held separately at a gala dinner due to time constraints and results and clips from the event would be shown at the ceremony. From 2010 to 2015, all awards were presented at the ceremony proper and the awards ceremony had been split into two shows. For Show 1, it was held at Caldecott Broadcast Centre throughout the above-mentioned period. For Show 2, it was held at Resorts World Sentosa in 2010 and 2011, at Marina Bay Sands in 2012 and 2013, at Suntec City in 2014 and at Caldecott Broadcast Centre in 2015.

In 2016, technical category awards were reverted to being presented at an off-site ceremony. Despite this, there still were two shows, where the programme and performance category awards were split equally. Both shows were held at the new Mediacorp campus at 1 Stars Avenue.

In 2017, a new format is introduced, whereby there is only one main show and three one-hour prelude episodes leading to it. Technical category awards (and Young Talent Award) are split equally among the three prelude episodes to be presented.

The award ceremonies were held in end of the year from 1998 to 2007. From 2009 onwards, the Star Awards would be held annually in April to honour television talents from works from the previous year. Hence, there was no ceremony in the year 2008.

With the merger of MediaCorp with SPH MediaWorks on 1 January 2005, nominees now include artistes and shows from MediaCorp Channel U, formerly MediaWork's Chinese language channel. The ceremony was broadcast on Channel U in 2005 for the first time.

Trophy

The Star Awards trophy has seen four different designs, since its inception in 1994.

• 1994: The trophy was a circular column with a star-shaped circle capping the top.
• 1995 - 1997: The trophy was a straight column topped with a gold star.
• 1998 - 1999: The trophy was changed to a cone-like shape with a bigger star.
• 2000–present: A new trophy made in Shanghai was designed, weighing 4 kg and cost S$1,000 each. It is designed with a crystal body shaped in the letter "S", and from another angle, shaped in the letter "A", forming the initials of the "Star Awards". The trophy used to come in different colors every year.

List of ceremonies

Colour key

     Recipient of Special Achievement Award

     Recipient of All-Time Favourite Artiste Award

     Recipient of Rocket Award

     Recipient of Honorary TV Award

Acting Awards

Performance categories

1) Best Actor
2) Best Actress
3) Best Supporting Actor
4) Best Supporting Actress
5) Young Talent
6) Best Evergreen Artiste Award
7) Best Programme Host (Variety, Info-Ed & Infotainment)
8) All-Time Favourite Artiste

Programme categories

1) Best Drama Serial
2) Best Theme Song
3) Best Variety Programme
4) Best Variety Special
5) Best Info-Ed Programme

Voting categories

1) Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes
2) Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes
3) London Choco Roll Happiness Award
(Sponsored Category)

Backstage Categories

1) Best Director
2) Best Screenplay
3) Best Variety Producer
4) Best Variety Writer
5) Best News Story

Awards that stopped giving out

Suspended categories

1) Best News Presenter
2) Best Current Affairs Presenter
3) Best Newcomer
4) Rocket
5) Top Rated Drama Serial
6) Top Rated Variety Programme
7) Best Cameraman for Drama Programme
8) Best Editing For Drama Programme
9) Best Set Design for Drama Programme

Discontinued categories

1) Special Achievement Award
2) Best Comedy Performer
3) Best News/Current Affairs Presenter
4) Unforgettable Villain
5) Favourite Onscreen Partner (Variety)
6) Favourite Host
7) Honorary TV Award
8) Best Variety Show Host
9) Best Info-Ed Programme Host
10) Most Popular Regional Artiste Award
11) Favourite Male Character
12) Favourite Female Character
13) Favourite Onscreen Couple (Drama)
14) Social Media Award

References

External links

• "Star Awards 2001 Back to the Past: Past Winners (1994-2000)". MediaCorp TV. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012.