PORTUGAL WINS FIRST INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AT 38th INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AWARDS GALA
RUPERT MURDOCH SURPRISES SIMON COWELL ON STAGE TO PRESENT HIM WITH INTERNATIONAL EMMY FOUNDERS AWARD
JIMMY FALLON AND ALEC BALDWIN PRESENT LORNE MICHAELS WITH INTERNATIONAL EMMY DIRECTORATE AWARD
NEW YORK, November 22, 2010 – The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the 38th International Emmy® Awards tonight at a Gala event held at the New York Hilton, hosted by actor Jason Priestley.
Portugal made history by taking home their first ever International Emmy® Award for the Telenovela My Love. CQC (Eyeworks Cuatro Cabezas SA) Argentina won in the Non-Scripted Entertainment Category after nine nominations. Israel won for the first time in the Comedy category with Traffic Light (Kupperman Productions/Keshet Broadcasting). Romania won for the first time in the Arts Programming Category with The World According to Ion B (HBO Romania) and South Korea won for the first time in the Documentary Category with Mom and the Red Bean Cake (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation).
In a total surprise, Newscorp Chairman & CEO, Rupert Murdoch appeared on stage to present Simon Cowell with the International Emmy Founders Award. the International Emmy DirectorateAward was presented to Lorne Michaels by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon host, Jimmy Fallon and 30 Rock star, Alec Baldwin.
A cast of celebrities including Peter Facinelli, Eli Wallach, Elisabeth Moss, Bill Moyers, Melissa Joan Hart, Christine Ebersole, Tony Goldwyn, Matthew Modine, Will Estes, Ruth Wilson, Alinne Moraes and Bruno Mazzeo presented the International Emmy® statue to the winners in front of an international audience of 1,000 entertainment professionals and media executives.
Winners span 6 countries including Argentina, Israel, Portugal, Romania, South Korea and The United Kingdom.
British programs won in both performance categories with Helena Bonham Carter for Best performance by an Actress for her role as Enid Blyton in Enid and Bob Hoskins in the Best Performance by an Actor for his role as Paddy Gargan in The Street.
“We congratulate tonight’s winners for their outstanding achievements”, said Academy President & CEO Bruce Paisner. “The Academy is proud to be the preeminent global platform for excellence in television and we’re delighted to be recognizing the world’s best programs and performances.” In addition to his weekly duties on SNL, the longest-running and highest-rated weekly late night television program in US history, Michaels is executive producer of NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Award-winning comedy 30 Rock with Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan. His previous television credits include Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Kids in The Hall and Night Music as well as specials with Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones and Simon & Garfunkel in Central Park. Lorne Michaels has produced numerous motion pictures including Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s Baby Mama, Mean Girls, Wayne’s World, Tommy Boy, and Three Amigos (which he produced and co-wrote with Steve Martin and Randy Newman). In 1979, Michaels founded the New-York based full service entertainment company Broadway Video Entertainment which is responsible for the production and distribution of a diverse television, film and music specials catalogue. The company’s distribution efforts have resulted in a huge international presence for SNL. The series airs in approximately 130 countries worldwide, including some countries where the local format is hugely successful.
Cowell is an A&R executive, producer and star of three of the highest rated television shows in the US and the UK. In 2002 he founded his UK-based media and entertainment production company, Syco. Cowell first became publicly known as a judge on Pop Idol and later American Idol. Meanwhile, with Syco, Cowell was responsible for developing two of the biggest hit formats in the world, in the Got Talent and X Factor franchises. In 2007, he became the first producer to simultaneously have the #1 program in the UK and the US as Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent topped the television charts. Got Talent is Europe’s leading entertainment format and was the fastest selling format in 2007 as well as 2008. The X Factor, having recently completed season six was awarded ‘Entertainment Show of the Year’ by the 2009 UK National Television Awards. Cowell’s shows can be seen in more than 70 countries around the world and in January 2011 Cowell will be bringing X Factor to the USA.
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a membership based organization comprised of leading media and entertainment figures from over 50 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of television including internet, mobile and technology. The Academy’s yearly schedule of events includes the prestigious International Emmy® Awards Ceremony held in New York, The International Digital Emmy® Awards at MIPTV and a series of industry events such as Academy Day, The International Emmy® World Television Festival and Panels on substantive industry topics. The Academy was chartered with a mission to recognize excellence in television produced outside of the United States and it presents The International Emmy® Awards in the following fifteen categories: Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actress; Best Performance by an Actor; Current Affairs; Children & Young People; Comedy; Digital Program: Children & Young People; Digital Program: Fiction; Digital Program: Non-Fiction; Documentary; Drama Series; News; Non-Scripted Entertainment; Telenovela; TV Movie/Mini-Series. For more information go to www.iemmys.tv.
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2010 INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AWARD WINNERS
Arts Programming
The World According to Ion B.
HBO Romania / Alexander Nanau Production
Romania
Ion B is a 62-year-old homeless man living in Bucharest who had dreamed of becoming a film director as a young man. In the 1970s he started creating collages, which he refers to as “my films”. In 2008, a young gallery owner heard about Ion and his work, a collection of old suitcases filled with almost 1,000 collages he had made between the 70’s and the 90’s. Now, one year later, Ion lives in his own home and has become one of the most important contemporary Romanian artists. The World According to Ion B. is the story of a genuine artist living on the edge of society, creating art in its purest form; for himself.
Best Performance by an Actor
Bob Hoskins
The Street
ITV Studios for BBC
United Kingdom
Bob Hoskins stars as local hero, Paddy Gargan, who has run a local community pub with his wife for 20 years. A recovering alcoholic, he faces any problems in his life head on, with honesty and with a clear sense of what he thinks is right and wrong. His morals lead him to stand his ground against seemingly insurmountable odds when he crosses local gangster Thomas Miller.
Best Performance by an Actress
Helena Bonham Carter
Enid
Carnival Film & Television for BBC
United Kingdom
Helena Bonham Carter is English children’s author Enid Blyton, one of the most successful storytellers of the 20th century. Blyton’s life and career span a time of enormous social and cultural change. Enid explores how the orderly, reassuringly clear worlds Blyton created within her stories contrast with the complexity of her own personal life.
Children & Young People
Shaun the Sheep
Aardman Animations / WDR & WDR mediagroup GmbH / BBC
United Kingdom
How much mischief can one sheep create? Plenty when that sheep is Shaun. His insatiable curiosity and irrepressible sense of fun lead him into the unlikeliest adventures, much to the exasperation of long-suffering sheepdog Bitzer and the amusement of the rest of the flock. Will the Farmer ever find out what’s really going on down on the farm?
Comedy
Traffic Light
Kuperman Productions / Keshet Broadcasting
Israel
Traffic Light focuses on the friendship and romantic relationships of three childhood friends, now in their early thirties. Each is at a different period in their relationship. Itzko is the red light; he is married with a daughter, leaving his personal life at a standstill. Amir, who functions as an advisor and trouble-shooter for the other two, is the blinking yellow light. He is living with his girlfriend and is on an irreversible journey from bachelorhood to marriage. For Heffer, the eternal bachelor, the light is still green and the traffic is flowing. The second season finds the friends right before the lights are about to change: Itzko is on the brink of divorce and is making a last ditch effort to make his marriage work; Amir is planning his wedding; and Heffer is wondering, for the first time, if he is ready to have a serious relationship.
Documentary
Mom and the Red Bean Cake
Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)
South Korea
Choi Jeongmi is a single mother of two with terminal stomach cancer. She makes a living by selling red bean cakes to raise her two children – seven-year-old Eunseo and five-year-old Honghyeon. After going through painful anticancer treatment, she dreams of a new life with her children, but the cancer relapses. She is temporarily staying at a shelter for mothers, but has to make money to buy a house for her children, who are currently living in a 24-hour nursery. Though exhausted from anticancer treatment, she has to make red bean paste in the early morning and sell them all day. Mom and the Red Bean Cake follows her daily struggle of balancing motherhood and her illness.
Drama Series
The Street
ITV Studios for BBC
United Kingdom
The Street explores the lives of six neighbors living on the same street in Manchester, with each episode focusing on the story of a different resident. It takes the viewer behind closed doors in order to gain insight into personal struggles and the effect it has on the community as a whole.
Non-Scripted Entertainment
CQC
Eyeworks Cuatro Cabezas SA
Argentina
CQC (Caiga Quien Caiga) is a weekly news review that approaches current affairs, sports, show business, and political news from a humorous and ironic point of view. It is presented by three hosts live from a studio, with a team of roving reporters in the field who will stop at nothing to get the story, asking the questions others can’t, won’t, or don’t ask.
Telenovela
My Love
Plural Entertainment Portugal
Portugal
My Love follows three women whose fates are crossed after a plane crash. When Mel thinks her beloved Bernardo has died in the crash, she moves to her uncle’s house in Lisbon with her sister Clara, where she piques the interest of Cláudio. Through Cláudio, Mel experiences the glamorous universe of famous fashion designer Helena Vargas, whose brother was also on the plane. Meanwhile, the powerful Caetano Vargas Mota, Helena’s father, discovers that either Mel or Clara is his daughter. With Lisbon as the backdrop, My Love is a story of love, betrayal, justice, courage, revenge, friendship, and glamour.
TV Movie/Mini-Series
Small Island
Ruby Television in association with AL Films / Northern Ireland Screen for BBC, co-produced with WGBH Boston
United Kingdom
Adapted from the 2004 novel by Andrea Levy, Small Island follows the complicated stories of two couples whose lives become intertwined in 1948 London. When Hortense arrives in London from Jamaica to live with her new husband, Gilbert, she’s dismayed to find that it’s far from the city of her dreams. In the small-minded country, where they face racism and poverty, Hortense’s only saving grace is their landlady Queenie. But Queenie faces her own disillusionment, married to the kind, but dull, Bernard. Bonded by high hopes and broken dreams, these four lives fuse together in a story of love and fulfillment.