Power gamea 1970s comedy that plays with the conventions of historical TV, docudrama and political satire, has won the top prize for best series at this year’s Canneseries television festival.
The series stars Kathrine Thorborg Johansen as Gro Harlem Brundtland, a young doctor and women’s choice activist in the 1970s who finds herself in politics through a series of mishaps and, as the government implodes around her, learns to play the power game and the rank to become Norway’s first female prime minister. The project, which plays out as a comic version of Danish political series Securealso won Best Music Award at Canneseries for Kåre Christoffer Vestrheim, Andrea Louise Horstad, Kristoffer Lo and Eivind Helgerød.
Created by showrunner Johan Fasting and directed by Yngvild Sve Flikke, the series was produced by Motlys and Fremantle label Novemberfilm for NRK/NDR in Norway. Power game is sold worldwide by REinvent International Sales.
Korean horror series Bargain won best screenplay at Canneseries for co-writers Woo-Sung Jeon, Byeong-Yun Choi and Jae-Min Kwak. Featuring an underground organ auction, a disastrous earthquake and a life-and-death fight, the chiller will air on TVING and Paramount+ in Korea and will be sold worldwide by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
Israeli actress Hadas Ben Aroya won the Best Performance award for her lead role Corduroy, as a free-living modern woman in Tel Aviv who gets caught up in an “anti-love story” with a married man. Produced by Banijay’s Movieplus Productions, Corduroy is sold by HOT.
Another Israeli series, Carthage, won the festival’s special interpretation award. Based on true events, the historical drama/comedy/thriller follows Elijah Levi, a Jewish comedian who was sent to the British prison camp at Carthage in Africa in the early 1940s, where his fellow prisoners included Italian fascists, Nazi spies and Jewish terrorists. Produced by 24 Drafts Studios, Yoav Gross and Reshef Levi for KAN 11 in Isreal, the series is sold worldwide by Ehud Bleiberg and UTA Agents.
Sign for change!a six-part documentary series about female cartoonists in Mexico, the US, Russia, India, Syria and Egypt won the award for Best Documentary Series.
As previously announced, Sarah Michelle Gellar has won this year’s Canal+ Icon Award, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actress Morfydd Clark was honored with the Canneseries ‘rising star’ award, and Transparent creator Joey Soloway was honored with the Konbini Commitment Award.
The awards were presented at a ceremony in Cannes on Wednesday evening. The full list of 2023 Canneseries winners is below.
Best Series: Power game
Best Screenplay: Bargain
Best Music: Power game
Best Performance: Corduroy
Special Interpretation Prize: Carthage
High School Price: Carthage
Best Short Form Series: The left-handed son
Student price: L’air d’aller
Best Documentary Series: Sign for change!
Canal+ Icon Award: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Madame Figaro Rising Star Award: Morfydd Clark
Konbini Dedication Award: Joey Soloway
Europe 1 Audience Award: Les Combattantes
