The 2013 International Emmy Awards – Of Britain and Boys
Once upon a time the International Emmys were just about giving countries around the world the chance to cheer on their nominees (metaphorically speaking) as the best programming from across the globe competed for their chance to win television’s most coveted prize. With the boom in television shows, the US has been looking to overseas shows more and more for fresh ideas, very often to remake, and so the iEmmys have become increasingly popular.
This year there were 9 categories. South Africa has had a number of nominations over the years, namely for drama shows like Home Affairs and Hopeville, directed by the ever-impressive Roberta Durrant, and producers from the country are involved in the judging process. This year, we had two vested interests: Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola and MasterChef SA in the best comedy and best non-scripted entertainment categories, respectively.
Monday night’s ceremony, which was hosted by John Stewart’s summer stand-in John Oliver, who’ll have his own show soon, gave out the honours as such:
Arts Programming
A tie! Between The United Kingdom’s Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender and Hello?! Orchestra from South Korea.
Best Performance by an Actor
Sean Bean in Britain’s Accused
Best Performance by an Actress
Fernanda Montenegro in Brazil’s Sweet Mother
Best Comedy
The UK’s Moone Boy
Best Documentary
5 Broken Cameras
Best Drama Series
France’s Les Revenants (The Returned) – watch out for the forthcoming American remake.
Non-scripted Entertainment
Australia’s Go Back To Where You Came From – Series 2
Telenovela
Brazil’s Side by Side
TV Movie
Germany’s A Day for a Miracle (Das Wunder von Kärnten)
Honorary awards were given to director/producer/all-round extraordinary being JJ Abrams for crossing cultural boundaries to touch audience’s common humanity, and to the head of big German media company, RTL Anke Schaferkordt who received the International Academy’s Directorate tribute.
More on the awards here.
Pic of Chris O’Dowd & Nick Vincent Murphy after winning Best Comedy: IEmmys.tv