A new way to pluck those Golden Swans

THIRTY-TWO YEARS after they were first introduced, Thailand’s National Film Awards, that “Thai Oscars” known locally as the Subhanahongsa or Golden Swan Awards are undergoing a massive revamp, with a radical change in the way the winners are chosen.
The overhaul comes at the decision of the organiser, the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand, and is in response to a barrage of criticism that has come its way over the years.
The new system, which has been dubbed the “R+O” system, combines a referee system with an open system and will feature a new and wider range of voters. The jury, which is selected every year and is made up of 15 respected filmmakers, critics, academics and guests, remains in place but the scores it awards will only account for half the points. The remaining 50 per cent will be comprised of the votes of more than 1,500 filmmakers, crew and invited film critics, media, bloggers and other guests
Federation president Visute Poolvoralaks, who took over the reins a few months before last year’s awards, says he decided to revamp the judging after complaints both about the result and the way in which the categories are defined.
A case in point was actress Penpak Sirikul’s nomination in the category of supporting actress for the 2012 film “Mai Dai Khor Hai Ma Ruk” (“It Gets Better”), in which she plays the lead.
“I’d been hearing these criticisms for the last few years so when I was given the chance to work for the Federation, it seemed silly to waste the opportunity of changing things,” he says.
The ideal model, says the president, is the Oscar voting system, which allows about 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to vote on each award.
“We don’t have such a strong or large membership system, so we decided instead to initiate the combination of the jury system, which we’ve used since the beginning, with the membership voting system,” he explains.
The Federation then worked with the film studios to construct a membership with the aim of reaching 1,500 individuals. To qualify for membership, the individual must have worked on a film that has been released in the cinema, have their name on the closing credits or be one of the supporting actors with dialogue in a film.
“The number surprised me. We have many more people in the industry than I had anticipated and the Federation will benefit from having such a database in the future,” Visute says.
The voting score will be divided equally between the jury “referees” and the open system. However, while the jury can vote for five nominees in all 16 categories, voters in the open system are limited to the Best Picture category before being assigned categories that are related to their particular field of work – art, music, acting and directing, script and producer.
Each voter rates each candidate with a number from 1 to 5. The scores are then added up and combined with the jury’s score. The five highest-scoring candidates in each category will then be the nominees, with the results being announced on January 28.
The second round of voting is for the winners and the Federation is also inviting selected guests, the media, critics and bloggers to vote as part of the open system.
Votes for each of the awards remain open until February 20, after which the scores from both systems will be combined and the winners announced at the award ceremony on February 23.
Since it’s the first year, some mistakes can be expected, Visute says.
“The only concern so far is that voters haven’t seen all the films and we are aiming to overcome this by organising special screenings. However, even then I think it will be impossible for everyone to see every film before voting.
“So for this year only, we have given our membership the choice of not voting in the category to which they are assigned. We just have to hope that they manage to see as many movies as they can before voting,” he says.
Visute would love to have the luxury of sending DVDs to all 1,500 voters plus the media but, as this would likely involved 35 films, says it would be too great a financial burden for the Federation to bear.
“I’m not totally confident that the new system will be the best but it’s better than doing nothing,” he says.
Before the Subhanahongsa gained recognition as the National Film Awards, Thailand’s top-tier awards was the Tukkata Tong or Golden Doll. These were initiated in 1957 but came to an end in 1965 before being revived in 1973. Their popularity and credibility diminished after a series of corrupt and unfair judgements, which in some cases saw the awards going to unfinished and unreleased films.
The Producers Association introduced the Subhanahongsa Awards in 1979 and they continued unchanged until 1987. The awards were then taken over by the Federation and began again in 1992.

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The Thailand National Film Awards will be handed out on February 23 at the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel Pattaya.