The awards ceremony for Asian Academy Creative Awards 2024 (AAA) was held in Singapore on 3 December, and Kansai TV’s news feature “A Picture Book of Hope: My Daughter’s Battle with Cancer” was awarded Grand Final Winner in the Short Form (Non Scripted) category. On the feature, one of the judges commented “I’m crying.”
The AAA, Asia-Pac’s most prestigious awards for creative excellence, recognizes outstanding content from 16 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region.

Title: “A Picture Book of Hope: My Daughter’s Battle with Cancer”
Award: Grand Final Award, Best Short Form (Non Scripted)
Broadcasted: 3 June 2024 in Kansai TV’s evening news program ‘news runner’.
Director: Kaede Nyudo
Cameraman: Tsuyoshi Hongo
Editing: Yasuhiro Miyamura
Japanese Narration: Yasuo Toyoda
Feature Producer: Satoshi Matsuda
English version Producer: Yuko Hashizaki

Synopsis
Kasumi Ohara (age 4) was diagnosed with “retinoblastoma”, a rare cancer in the retina when she was a year and four months old. Despite going through chemotherapy, the cancer spread to both of her eyes. By the time she was three years old, she had both of her eyes removed, which made her blind.
Her mother Ayako Ohara a self-taught artist, started painting her daughter’s battle with cancer, to help cope with her emotions. She is working to compile these pictures together and publish it as a children’s book, in hopes to raise awareness about pediatric cancer and the importance of early detection.
Click here to watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K20f2C573IY

Kaede Nyudo, Director of the news feature, commented:
“I am truly honoured to receive this award.
Losing your eyesight is incredibly sad and difficult to overcome. However, Kasumi is so full of energy and curiosity, that we almost do not sense that difficulty. I believe that comes from the support that she receives, and the bond she shares with her family. I strongly hope that this feature will help raise awareness of retinoblastoma, and also lead to the early detection of childhood cancer.”

The following were also awarded National Winners in the AAA 2024.
Best Single News Report: “To Run is to Live”
Best Cinematography (Non-fiction): Kohei Higuchi (Documentary “The indigo : Color Created by BUAISOU”)

Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA)
The Awards were established in 2018 with the aim of showcasing outstanding Asia-Pacific content to the world. This year, films from 16 countries and territories were recognized across 41 categories in the fields of TV, film, digital, streaming and new technologies.
Official website: https://www.asianacademycreativeawards.com/

Kansai TV previous awards in the Asian Academy Creative Awards:
8K/HDR “Three Trees” Grand Final Winner, Short Form Category AAA 2020