2023 Weibo TV and Internet Video Summit. List of Winners and Highlights

The glittery 2023 Weibo TV and Internet Video Summit Awarding ceremony was held in Beijing yesterday, December 5, 2023. Quality drama works were chosen from the selection of 99 series aired this year.

Unlike the Weibo Night Awards, this event is separate and purposely for the Weibo Vision Conference where investors and network executives are propping who are the next big things in the C-entertainment to be tapped for the next drama projects.

Cheng Yi won the Annual Expressive Actor award

Surprisingly, this year, no big liuliang stars ever got the awards (and we're wondering why) despite having big dramas aired this year - both Dilraba Dilmurat, Xiao Zhan, and Yang Zi, have big-budgeted series released this year, however, none of them won individual awards despite being shortlisted.

Joy of Life co-stars Li Qin and Zhang Ruoyun

Has Weibo changed the way they chose awardees? Some winners in valuable categories, such as Excellent Drama, Outstanding Directors and screenwriters, and Innovative Works, are no longer based on fan votes but are deliberately chosen by experts from the industry.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook team: directors Ren Haitao,Guo Hu,Cheng Yi,and Joseph Zeng

Mysterious Lotus Casebook was the big winner for the night, bringing home four awards - Annual Breakthrough Innovation Work, Outstanding Director for Guo Hu, Annual Expressive Actor for Cheng Yi, and Annual Anticipated Actor for Joseph Zeng.

Liu Yuning and Tan Jianci performed on stage but the most surprising was Zhang Bichen who performed "Direction of Light", the opening theme song of The Long Ballad!

Here's the list of awardees for this year's edition:

Media Selection Excellent Drama and Variety Work

The Long Season (Tencent)
Ever Present Variety Show

The Long Season wins three awards

Annual Artistic Work - The Long Season (Tencent)

Annual Quality Work

Bright Future (Tencent)
Imperfect Victim (iQIYI)
The Heart (Tencent)
The Long Season (Tencent)
Who is He (iQIYI)
Documentary - Flavor of the World
Summer of the Band variety show
Dream Home Remodel reality show
Overcoming obstacles variety show

An Ancient Love Song

Annual Breakthrough Innovative Work

An Ancient Love Song (Bilibili)
I am Nobody (Youku)
Lost You Forever (Tencent)
Meet Yourself (Huace)
Mysterious Lotus Casebook (iQIYI)
Scent of Time (Youku)
The Youth Memories (Tencent)
Three Body (Tencent)
Travel Notes Variety Show

Annual influential director - Yang Lei (Three Body, Tencent)

Annual Anticipated Work for next year (Quite surprising since the winner in popular votes on Weibo was Hero Legends of Cheng Yi)

Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Yuehong (iQIYI)
Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Zhu Ye (iQIYI)
Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Wang Quan (iQIYI)
Joy of Life (iQIYI)

Annual Anticipated Work awardees

Annual Influential Work

Extreme Challenge variety show (Dragon TV)
Hello Saturday variety show (Hunan TV)
Lost You Forever (Tencent)
Run It variety show
Till The End of The Moon (Youku)
The Knockout (iQIYI)

Outstanding Directors of the Year

Guo Hu (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)
Wu Tong (Ace vs Ace)

Annual Excellent Screenwriters

Gao Xuan (Imperfect Victim, iQIYI)
Zhou Yifei (The Heart, Tencent)

Cheng Yi receiving his Annual Expressive Actor award

Annual Expressive Actor

Cheng Yi (Mysterious Lotus Casebook, iQIYI)
Zhao Lusi (Hidden Love, Youku)

Annual Reputation Actor

Rayzha (Fearless, iQIYI)
Wang Kai (Like a Flowing River season 3, CCTV)

Annual Quality Actor

Liu Shishi (A Journey to Love, iQIYI)
Zhang Ruoyun (Under the Microscope, iQIYI)

Annual Appeal Actor

Bai Lu (Till the End of the Moon)
Tan Jianci (Lost You Forever)

Joseph Zeng and Tan Jianci

Annual Anticipated Actor

Joseph Zeng (Mysterious Lotus Casebook, iQIYI)
Li Landy (The Starry Love, Youku)
Wang Anyu (Ode to Joy S4, Tencent)
Zhou Yiran (When I Fly Towards You, Youku)

Annual Strength Actor

Li Qin (Miles to Go, The Youth Memories)
Wang Yang (Fearless)

Annual Influential Actor

Huang Xiaoming (Good Things Come in Pairs, Tencent)
Yan Ni (Good Things Come in Pairs, Tencent)

Annual Outstanding Actor - Zhang Xiaofei (Alliance, Tencent)

Annual Charming Actor

Gulinazha (Incomparable Beauty, Hunan TV)
Jing Tian (The Legend of Zhuohua and Wonderland of Love, Tencent)
Li Yitong (The Knockout, iQIYI)
Tang Yixin (In Later Years, iQIYI)

Guo Junchen

Annual Breakthrough Actor

Guo Junchen (Beauty of Resilience, iQIYI)
Hu Yitian (See You Again)
Jolin Jin (My Journey To You, iQIYI)
Liu Haocun (Just for Meeting You movie)

Elvis Han and Cai Wenjing

Annual Enterprising Actor

Elvis Han (Fake It Till You Make It, Mango TV)
Cai Wenjing (Fake It Till You Make It, Mango TV)
Ying Er (Imperfect Victim, iQIYI)
Crystal Zhang
Zhang Yunlong (Pledge of Allegiance, IQIYI)

Annual Potential Actor

Song Yanfei (Exploration Method of Love, Tencent)
Wang Xing Yue (Scent of Time, Youku)
Wang Yuwen (The Love You Give Me, Tencent)
Yang Chao Yue (Love You Seven Times, iQIYI)

Annual Craftsmanship Actor

Guo Tao
Mei Ting
Liu Yijun
Liu Lin

Craftmanship Actor Awardees

Annual Leap Actor

Guan Xiaotong
Jin Chen
Liu Yuning

Annual Leap Actor awardees

Congratulations to all the winners!

Highlights of the events

It looks like some awardees at this year's Weibo TV and Internet Video Summit were not based on fan votes but on the quality of work, thank God!

Cheng Yi with Mysterious Lotus Casebook directors

Has Weibo changed its process of handing out the awards?

In the past weeks, they announced that fans could nominate their favorite stars and series to be considered for the awards.

Some big names such as Xiao Zhan, Yang Zi, Wang Yibo, Dilraba Dilmurat, Yang Yang, including their acting projects this year were shortlisted.

However, none of them, except Yang Zi's Lost You Forever, made it to the final awards, which means that the winners were not based on fan votes but on the panel of jury.

Bai Lu and Gulinazha

High-quality series this year were eventually recognized! The Long Season, a critically-acclaimed crime-thriller starring veteran actor, Fan Wei, won three major awards for excellence.

The Long Season is also this year's most-awarded C-drama overseas. This is also Douban's highest-rated drama in 2023. An Ancient Love Song, the highest-rated costume drama this year in Douban also won the Quality Work award. Most award-winning series are also Douban's highest-rated dramas.

Big winners:

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - 4 awards
The Long Season - 3 awards
Lost You Forever - 3 awards

Celebrity Fashion

There was a red carpet ceremony before the proper event, and as usual, we have some favorites who graced the red carpet in glamor and elegance.

Liu Shishi wears an Armani Prive red gown

Jing Tian and Wang Yuwen

We love Liu Shishi's Armani Prive red dress, Bai Lu's green tube dress from Tony Ward, Tang Yixin's winter blue dress, Wang Yuwen's ethereal peach dress, Gulinazha's heavily embedded halter dress, and Li Qin's shimmering gold cape dress.