HBO and Sky drama Chernobyl was a double winner at the Rose D’Or awards. The event, which was held in London and presented by Lenny Henry, awarded The Golden Rose Award to the Sister Pictures-produced limited series, which also picked up the best drama award, ahead of Killing Eve, Succession, Years and Years, 8 Days and Escape at Dannemora. The Studio Entertainment award was won by BBC One’s Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, with the Comedy category going to Canadian series Baroness von Sketch Show and the Comedy Drama and Sitcom to Spanish series Arde Madrid. Orphans of a Nation, the Brazilian drama from Globo, won in the Soaps and Telenovelas category, while the Children and Youth award was presented to Norwegian series ZombieLars, which pairs slapstick gags with social commentary. The Reality and Factual Entertainment category was won by BBC2’s The Repair Shop, the Arts category was a win for Holland’s The Greenaway Alphabet, from acclaimed filmmaker Peter Greenaway. The award for Social Media Video Series was presented to Dutch series Swipe, a seven-part drama series focusing on the unforeseen influence of smartphones on young adults, told from the perspectives of their phones.
The disappearance of Flight MH370 is being turned into a drama mini-series by French broadcaster France Televisions. The six-part series is produced by Alef One, headed up by Riviera producer Nora Melhli, and will be distributed by Banijay Rights. It will explore the biggest mystery in aviation history, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which in 2014 was lost somewhere over the South China Sea carrying 239 passengers. Gilles Bannier (The Tunnel) wil showrun with Tim Loane (Versailles) and Laurent Mercier (The Club) set as writers. Nadine Nohr is co-executive producer for the series, which is shot mainly in English and is based on the novel by Ghyslain Wattrelos, who lost his wife and two of his three children in the tragedy and the book by Florence de Changy, the journalist, who investigated the disappearance.
The 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards will air on a slew of international networks after Alfred Haber Distribution closed a number of deals. The show, which will air on TNT and TBS in the U.S. on Sunday, January 19, 2020, will air internationally on Corus (Canada), BAM Asia (Southeast Asia), Foxtel (Australia), Turner (Germany), and Dubai One (Middle East). Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s Hazy Mills Productions is teaming with Avalon Harbor Entertainment to produce the awards with Hayes, Milliner and Kathy Connell set as executive producers. “Established as one of the world’s premier film and television awards show events, the SAG Awards promises an unforgettable evening of laughter, surprises, drama and excitement, not to mention the world’s biggest stars,” said Alfred Haber.
The 2019 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has crowned its award winners. The Estonian event gave its Grand Prix for best film to Japanese pic Kontora, from filmmaker Anshul Chauhan. The jury was overseen by Mike Newell. The award for best director went to Jun Robles Jana for the Filipino film Kalel. Best script went to Evgeny Ruman and Ziv Berkovich for their Israeli feature Golden Voices. Best actress went to Alina Serban for Gipsy Queen, while Cavan Clerkin took best actor for Muscle. Richard Wong scooped best cinematographer for Coming Home Again, and best music went to Yuma Koda for Kontora. In the First Feature Competition, best film was awarded to Gregor Bozic’s Stories From The Chestnut Woods, with jury prizes going to Bernardo Barrett’s The Seeker and Bahman Tavoosi’s The Names Of The Flowers. In the Baltic Film Competition, Tomas Vengris’ Lithuanian pic Motherland took best feature. In the Rebels With A Cause Competition, Chinese pic Feast from Yunxing Nie was named best film. Tallinn’s audience award this year went to Narges Abyar’s When The Moon Was Full. The festival wrapped its 23rd edition over the weekend.