Asian Academy of Creative Arts

AACAs Spotlight Asian Creative Excellence

Asia’s leading producers and distributors will be convening again to celebrate the diversity of the content produced across the region at the Asian Academy Creative Awards (AACAs) this December. Across 41 categories, content from 17 countries in the Asia Pacific will vie to be crowned the best in the region, but, as Michael McKay, founder and president of the AACAs, notes, the event and the broader goals of the Asian Academy of Creative Arts go beyond a golden statuette.

“Our mission is to promote AsiaPac content and creatives to the rest of the world,” Michael says. “It’s important that people understand it’s not just about a glittering trophy, it’s about business. And it’s a great time for Asia to drive that business now.”

As part of those efforts, Michael and his partner, Fiona McKay, CEO of the Asian Academy of Creative Arts, have been staging an array of networking events across the region, including in Taipei, Jakarta, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila. “We want to be able to connect with each of the different nations that are part of the Asian Academy,” Michael says. “These networking events allow us to do that. They’ve also been important in bringing the local industry together.”

Elite members of the Asian Academy of Creative Arts are automatically invited to the organization’s networking events, which feature “a curated list of guests,” Fiona says. “There is a roundtable discussion about local production and the challenges and opportunities.”

Beyond networking and the awards, the Academy also hosts an annual Producers Summit and Masterclass, with this year’s editions set to stream online on July 18 and 19. At the Producers Summit, past winners will discuss their projects, while the Masterclass sessions will focus on the theme of “What’s Next?”

“Last year, everyone just wanted to talk about AI, and that’s part of what’s next,” Michael says. “There’s a fear in the industry, and we’re all wondering what’s over the hill. We’re all marching up there but don’t know what’s there. It’s about equipping our industry with the knowledge of what’s next. Everybody is still going to need content. There’s a rearranging of the deck chairs right now. But it’s not the Titanic! We’ll emerge, as we have from every other time of change. This one is perhaps more profound than before, but people will still need content. How is the industry making money from that?”

After the online Producers Summit and Masterclass, the team will shift all their focus to this year’s Awards ceremonies. Entries close on August 1, with the national winners from each country to be announced on Facebook at the end of September. On December 3 and 4, the AACAs head to their new home: the Capitol Theatre in Singapore. New for this year are scripted and non-scripted divisions in key categories like format adaptations, cinematography and best streaming original, as well as a special discounted rate for start-ups, students and non-profits looking to enter the short-form category.

“In places that are used to having an academy, people understand their value,” says Michael. “There’s skepticism because the track record for awards locally has not been wonderful. But I think people are starting to embrace what it means to have an award that is properly voted for, to an international standard. What’s judged the best wins.”

Celebrating AsiaPac’s Excellence

The Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAAs) were launched five years ago by Michael and Fiona McKay to celebrate the best in Asia-Pacific content. Today, the annual awards ceremony is just one prong in the Asian Academy of Creative Arts’ efforts to elevate the region’s storytelling globally.

“We have three missions,” says Fiona. “The first, with the AAAs, is to promote creative AsiaPac talent to the international market. I think we’ve made tremendous progress there. Our second mission is to train the next generation of industry professionals with our skills-development programs, such as our annual masterclasses and a Producers Summit. And the third mission, our newly introduced Elite Membership, combines the first two objectives with a high-level networking program. The Elite Membership recognizes outstanding career achievements. If you attend the networking sessions or special events, you can connect with fellow Elite Members who have been similarly acknowledged for excellence in the creative arts. Our exclusive industry networking events aim to create greater cohesion and encourage co-production and idea-sharing among powerhouse filmmakers and creators.”

Entries are now open for the 2023 edition of the AAAs, with submissions due by August 15. National winners, hailing from 16 countries and territories across 35 categories, will be unveiled via an international live stream on September 28, with those honorees then going on to vie for the best-in-AsiaPac Grand Awards in Singapore from December 7 to 8.

“The Asian Academy Creative Awards were created to be hard to win,” says Michael. “You’ve got to be judged the best in your own country, then compete against up to 16 others from around the entire region in each category.” He adds: “Obviously, the sense of achievement is through the roof, and deservedly so.”

According to Michael and Fiona, the foundation stone of the AAAs is the integrity of its judging systems, which were purposely based on the International Emmy scoring system. “We wanted AsiaPac’s works to be judged to the same standard, to be internationally benchmarked,” says Michael, himself an International Emmy winner for his work on The Amazing Race Australia. “We wanted a system familiar to international judges, and we wanted to give confidence to AAA winners that they could compete at a global level.”

And there are clear benefits to an AAAs win beyond the honor of being recognized as among the best shows made in the region. “You can expect an international sales bump of between 8 and 16 percent,” Michael says. “From a business marketing point of view, it’s really important.”

Developing the skill sets of producers across the region is also a core mandate of the Asian Academy of Creative Arts, with a series of masterclasses and the Producers Summit set to run in Singapore on July 26 and 27. The lineup of speakers at the Producers Summit this year includes award-winning director and producer Aidee Walker from New Zealand, ABP Studios’ Vivek Mathur, Vice Media’s Samira Kanwar, award-winning actress Jodi Sta. Maria, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Clement Schwebig (chair of the 2023 Asian Academy Creative Awards) and Weiyu Films’ Lee Thean-Jeen. “We’ll look at AI, future trends, virtual production and more,” Michael notes. “We like to pick subjects that help us learn about the newer things coming into the industry. It’s great for the students. It’s also great for the old industry veterans like myself who want to keep up.”

The newest development at the Academy is the launch of an Elite Membership program, a plan that’s been long in the works but was interrupted by the pandemic. “We always wanted to have an organization that we could all belong to as an industry, that represented us and gave our members opportunities,” Michael says. “Our Elite Membership is an acknowledgment of people’s achievements within the industry. It’s a referral/endorsement, peer-judged membership. We want it to be a calling card for the industry. Members receive concessions on tickets and complimentary entry to events across the region. We want it to be a terrific member-to-member networking opportunity.”

Those network opportunities include a series of events across Asia, beginning with one in Taipei on June 15 that showcased Taiwan’s attractive foreign production incentives and infrastructure. Up next will be gatherings in Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Tokyo and other cities to be announced, Fiona says.