Maja Salvador achieved a colossal international milestone Sunday after being adjudged Best Actress by the first Asia Contents Awards in Busan, South Korea for her much praised, gripping performance as Lily Cruz and Ivy Aguas in the revenge drama Wildflower.

Maja, the lone Filipina nominee, was chosen over nine other contenders for the prestigious Asian plum. The Asia Contents Awards, organized by the well-known Busan International Film Festival and Asian Film Market, recognizes exemplary creative achievement in television across Asia.

Her portrayal was received with much acclaim and adulation in highly rated and widely followed series that ran for a year from February 2017 to 2018. Viewers and netizens have all praised and cheered on her character in her vengeful journey against the powerful Ardiente political clan that wronged her.

In her acceptance speech, Maja said playing Ivy and Lily was both “a challenge and a pleasure as an actor” and considered it an honor to have been bestowed the role by the network and the production team, as she reiterated how viewers “empathized, cheered, and from time to time hated her for her choices.”

Maja had won several local acting awards for Wildflower, including the 2018 Gawad Tanglaw Awards, Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation Box Office Entertainment Awards, and 2018 Asian Academy Creative Awards. She was nominated in the Asian Television Awards 2018 for the role.

More than a year after the series ended, Wildflower continues to air in overseas markets, including New Caledonia in Polynesia, and the Reunion Islands, and other French-speaking African countries. It will soon air in Madagascar.