CNA Scores Two International Emmy Nominations in 2026, Extending a Three-Year Streak
Singapore’s Channel NewsAsia has secured two nominations at the 2026 International Emmy Awards, continuing a run of recognition that now stretches across three consecutive years.
The nominations were announced on Thursday morning, Singapore time, with 64 nominees named across 16 categories representing 22 countries. Among them, two CNA productions have earned places in a field that spans some of the most prominent broadcasters in the world — a signal that Singapore’s documentary output is registering on the international stage in ways that go beyond regional visibility.
The first nominated work, One “Orphan” Every Hour, enters the documentary category. The film traces the experiences of South Korean adoptees who were sent to Western countries as supposed orphans across the six decades following the Korean War — a subject that sits at the intersection of Cold War geopolitics, international adoption policy, and deeply personal identity. Its correspondent and producer, Wei Du, previously produced Walk The Line, which earned CNA a nomination in an earlier cycle. The film competes against Louis Theroux: The Settlers from the United Kingdom and Marcial Maciel: The Wolf Of God from Mexico, both productions with substantial institutional backing behind them.
The second nomination belongs to Undercover Asia: Copy + Paste + Steal, produced for CNA by The Moving Visuals Co Singapore. Nominated under the arts programming category, the documentary examines the accelerating tension between generative artificial intelligence and the creative industries, following practitioners who are actively contesting the displacement of human authorship. It faces competition from the four-part series Live Aid: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took On The World and Brazil’s Uncredited: The Story Of Passinho — both works rooted in cultural heritage, which makes CNA’s technology-focused entry a notably distinct voice in the category.
CNA’s previous nominations in this competition include The Exiles and Walk The Line, establishing a pattern that is difficult to dismiss as circumstantial. Three consecutive years of nominations from a single broadcaster in a small city-state represents a sustained editorial commitment to documentary journalism that travels — work that earns attention not because of a large domestic market but because of its subject matter and craft.
The broader nominee list reflects the genuinely international scope the awards have maintained. South Korean actress Park Ji-hyun received a best performance nomination for her role in Netflix’s You And Everything Else, while Vir Das: Full Volume enters the comedy category. International Academy president and CEO Bruce L Paisner described this year’s field as “as competitive as ever, with an outstanding range of entries from around the world vying for a coveted nomination.” The 54th International Emmy Awards Gala, where winners will be announced, is scheduled for November 23 in New York City.
What the CNA nominations collectively suggest is something worth examining beyond the awards cycle itself. Singapore’s media institutions operate within a regulatory environment that is, by any honest measure, constrictive — yet documentary journalism of this kind, addressing adoption trauma, geopolitical legacy, and the ethics of generative AI, is finding both production support and international recognition. Whether that reflects a deliberate strategic opening, or simply the latitude that comes with subjects set outside Singapore’s domestic political terrain, is a question the nominations alone cannot answer. What they do confirm is that the output is being taken seriously where it counts.
