Syndromes and a Century tops Kom Chad Luek Awards

In another unusual pick for Thailand's awards shows, Apichatpong Weerasethakul was awarded best film and best director for his Syndromes and a Century at the Sixth Kom Chad Luek Awards.

Premiered in 2006 at the Venice Film Festival, Syndromes and a Century played all over the world to universal acclaim and was the top pick of dozens of critics in 2007. It was finally released in Thailand last year in a limited run after a prolonged fight with censors who at first sought to cut four scenes and then ended up cutting six scenes.

To make a point about censorship, Apichatpong released Syndromes and a Century: Thailand's Edition in a limited run with the six banned scenes replaced by scratched black film leader. The missing scenes total around 15 minutes and range in length from a few seconds to around seven minutes.

The romantic drama Wonderful Town, which also only saw a limited release in Thailand, was also honored at the Kom Chad Luek Awards last night at Centerpoint Playhouse at CentralWorld, with star Anchalee Saisoontorn named best actress -- her second honor after winning at the Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards. The win continues the awards run for indie director Aditya Assarat's film.

"Tui" Kiatkamol Latha was named best actor for his role as a three-armed man in Kongdej Jaturanrasamee's romantic comedy Handle Me With Care (Kod). He had been nominated by both the Bangkok Critics and Subhanahongsa Awards, but had lost out to Ananda Everingham.

Television shows were also honored, and Lyn's Lakorns has the rundown on that. The Kom Chad Luek Awards are given by the Kom Chad Luek newspaper of the Nation Multimedia Group.

Update: There was also an award for best film script. It went to Wonderful Town. Best-supporting film actor went to Sorapong Chatree for Ong-Bak 2 and Focus Jirakul won again for Hormones. Pop Pictures has more.

(Via Kom Chad Luek)