The awards that no one wants

After an absence of almost seven years, the Tukkatathong Awards returned on Saturday, with the Association of Entertainment Reporters of Thailand handing out the “Golden Dolls” as part of a double bill that also saw Maneemekala awards go to achievements in TV. 

It wasn’t the glitziest comeback we’re ever seen. The stage in the Thammasat University auditorium looked poorly designed, complete with some sort of retro backdrop – letters stitched to the curtain. “What kind of stage is this?” puzzled a wag on Twitter. “After all these years, nothing has improved,” a movie critic remarked. 

There were 60 awards for cinema and TV combined, stretching the show past five hours. That’s not the sort of time the main TV stations were going to allot for a “high-school convocation”, no matter how many big celebrities were in attendance. It was a long holiday weekend, besides. So the whole thing ended up on NBT – eventually. An edited version was broadcast the next morning. 

The stars nominated for trophies showed up, of course, including Nadech Kugimiya, Urassaya “Yaya” Sperbund, Chaiyapol Julien Poupart, Penpak Sirikul and Jirayu “Kao” La-ongmanee, but the murmurs on the social media became disapproving when “Shambhala” was named best film of 2012. Most people reckoned “Home” should have won, or else “P-047”, “36” or “Together”. 

There was nothing to spark a major controversy, however. There was nothing at all, in fact, leaving many to wonder if the Tukkatathong Awards will still be around in another year’s time.

 

 

 

Phut mai dai

Thai-French actor Sunny Suwanmethanon is the celebrity guest accompanying winners of a “9 Entertain” contest to the Cannes Film Festival next week. 

Ah, bon chance! He can be their interpreter!

Actually, no. Although his mother is French, 32-year-old Sunny has never even been to France before and never learned the language. He’ll be inadvertently offending the locals just like everybody else. 

So his travelling companions are just going to have to settle for the warm glow of a friendly star.