Jeanette Aw, The Dream Makers win big

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Star Awards and Jeanette Aw, who previously told us that she just didn’t have any luck with awards, had a lot to celebrate, managing quite a haul at Star Awards 20 Show 1, held at the MediaCorp TV Theatre on Sunday evening. (Show 2 will be telecast live from Suntec City this weekend on April 27.)

Aw swept up awards in three of the hotly anticipated online-voting categories — Favourite Female Character, for her work as Zhao Fei Er in The Dream Makers; Favourite Onscreen Couple (together with Qi Yuwu, also for The Dream Makers); and Regional Most Popular MediaCorp Artiste Award for being well-received in Cambodia. She also won in a new category: The Social Media Award, the results of which are based on calculations from three international social media analysis systems. Aw, who said she had imagined the award going to Desmond Tan instead, has more than 50,000 followers on both Twitter and Instagram.

The actress was visibly elated despite being down with a fever and a throat infection. And she said she was going to meet her fans to thank them. “I’m really happy and I’d like to say a big thank you to all my fans because I know they’ve been working so hard and pushing themselves to vote for me to make sure I could get the awards.”

During the show, fellow actress Joanne Peh went onstage to accept the Favourite Onscreen Couple award together with Aw. Peh’s significant other, Qi Yuwu, was filming in China and couldn’t make it to the awards ceremony.

“Two girls on stage for a couple award — it’s a very alternative pairing,” said Aw with a laugh.

And, yes, Peh is apparently fine with Aw kissing her boyfriend. “(Qi and I) kissed before they got together, so there wasn’t any stress on me! I believe she’s okay with that too because, maybe, in other dramas, she got to kiss some other guys as well,” said Aw.

Aw’s wins in the online voting categories were a bit unexpected, as they have typically been dominated by Rui En in the past three years. “Competition this year was extreme,” said Aw. “I was really stressed and anxious ... (Rui En’s) fans are supportive, but so are mine.”

As for Rui En, she hadn’t been taking a win for granted. “I was losing for the past few weeks, so it would have taken a miracle, actually,” she said. “I’m more disappointed for (my fans) because I know they’ll be very sad and they’ll blame themselves. So I hope I can come up with ways to make them happy, like maybe buying them stuff to eat.”

The two-time Best Actress winner was chilled out about going home with only two prizes — Most Popular Regional Artiste for Indonesia and Malaysia.

Bagging the Favourite Male Character award was Elvin Ng for his role as Ah Wei in I’m In Charge. “I have no words for how thankful I am to my fans. I know they’ve put in so much time and effort, especially since this year’s voting was much tougher.”

The other big winner of the night was the blockbuster drama about people working in the television industry, The Dream Makers, which took home awards for Best Theme Song, Best Screenplay and Best Director (it was a three-way tie between Dream Makers’ Wong Foong Hwee, Chong Liung Man for The Journey: A Voyage and Leong Lye Lin for Sudden).

Rebecca Leow, who wrote The Dream Makers’ screenplay, confessed to being inspired by her 25-year career in the TV industry. “I’ve heard a lot and seen a lot. A lot of it is based on my memories – plus, I improvised a bit,” she said. “I was most prepared to face critics before the debut. I was worried people might say, ‘Is that me? Are you trying to reflect me?’”

Thankfully, though, “nobody said anything”, said Leow.

People generally cultivate a look of surprise when their names are called out at these shows, but nobody looked more genuinely shocked than Priscelia Chan when she won the Rocket Award for showing the most improvement in the past year. Chan is also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award for her turn as the villainess Han Xiu Xiang in The Journey: A Voyage.

“I never imagined that the award would go to me,” said the seasoned actress, for whom even crew and media backstage applauded and cheered.

“Han Xiu Xiang was the one who really brought me to greater heights. I let myself go ... she brought me to wild delusions of ecstasy, hatred, darkness,” she continued.

Notably, Chan was wearing her costume from The Journey when she walked on stage to collect her award. “I think it’s quite symbolic because, normally, people will go in a gown, and I actually wore the outfit of the role,” she said with a smile.

However, apart from Chan’s cutting-edge ye olde Chinese look, other artistes were tamely dressed this year, leaving us with only one thing on our minds: We miss you, Ann Kok.

Catch Star Awards 20 Show 2 on April 27 at 7pm (Walk Of Fame at 5.30pm).

Check out who wore what at Star Awards 20 Show 1 at http://tdy.sg/sa20fashion.