BRAZIL WINS FIRST INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AT 37th INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AWARDS GALA
10 WINNERS SPAN 6 COUNTRIES INCLUDING BRAZIL, DENMARK, GERMANY, JAPAN, THE NETHERLANDS AND THE UNITED KINGDOM
UK WINS IN 5 CATEGORIES
NEW YORK, November 23, 2009 – The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the 37th International Emmy® Awards tonight at a Gala event held in the New York Hilton, hosted by British television celebrity, Graham Norton.
A cast of international celebrities including Ed Westwick, Edie Falco, Alexa Chung, Moby, Katharine McPhee, Rachel Roy, Stephanie March, Keke Palmer, Matt Bomer, Matthew Rhys, Paul Schulze, Paula Zahn, Barbara Walters and Henry Kissinger, 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 across Europe, Asia and South America.
This year, Brazil made history by taking home their first ever International Emmy® Award for the Telenovela India-A Love Story.
Returning Emmy winning countries include Denmark taking Drama Series with The Protectors, Japan taking Comedy for Hoshi Shinichi’s Short Shorts, The Netherlands taking Non-Scripted with The Phone and Germany taking TV Movie Mini-Series with The Wolves of Berlin.
The United Kingdom won both Performance categories. Best Performance by an Actor went to Ben Whishaw winning for his performance as Ben Coulter in Criminal Justice. Best Performance by an Actress was won by Julie Walters for her performance as Dr. Anne Turner in A Short Stay in Switzerland.
Other than the performance categories, British programs also won in the Arts Programming, Children & Young People, and Documentary categories.
“We congratulate tonight’s winners for their outstanding achievements. All the nominated programs and performances are a true inspiration for all of us in the industry and for audiences worldwide,” said Academy President & CEO Bruce Paisner.
Sir David Frost, one of the preeminent television figures of the 20th century whose interviews with President Richard Nixon were immortalized in last year’s Oscar nominated movie Frost/Nixon, was presented with the 2009 International Emmy® Founders Award by legendary journalist Barbara Walters. The Directorate Award was presented to Prof Markus Schächter, Director General ZDF by Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger for of his outstanding leadership of ZDF for the last 7 years and to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the founding of The Federal Republic of Germany and the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Sir David Frost is one of the preeminent television figures of the 20th century – not to mention the 21st! Sir David has been producing and hosting his own shows for more than 40 years and began his fourth year of hosting and producing Frost Over The World for Al Jazeera English this September. The program is received in more than 140 million homes in over 100 countries. Over the years, Frost has interviewed hundreds of celebrities and newsmakers. He is the only person to have interviewed all seven British Prime Ministers serving between 1964 and 2009 and the seven US presidents in office between 1969 and 2008. His ground breaking satirical show That Was The Week That Was and its follow-up, The Frost Report, served as a launch pad for many modern British comics (including most of the cast of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and propelled Frost into the limelight. By the end of the 1960s he was producing shows in England and the US, and enjoying as much celebrity as those he was interviewing on TV.
Over the last 25 years, Markus Schächter has been instrumental in positioning ZDF as a leader both in the highly competitive German television market and throughout the world. He also provided leadership for ZDF’s participation in the digital transformation. Prof. Schächter’s career at ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) spans over 25 years, with a succession of key roles in production, programming and management. He was elected Director General by ZDF’s governing body, The Television Council, in 2002 and has since overseen the group’s operations which include the main channel and three special interest channels in its digital bouquet, as well as cable and satellite channels 3sat, ARTE, Kinderkanal and PHOENIX.
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.
Press Contacts:
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
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Matt Biscuiti
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2009 INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AWARD WINNERS
ARTS PROGRAMMING
The Mona Lisa Curse
Oxford Film & Television for Channel 4
United Kingdom
Art critic Robert Hughes tells the story of the rise of contemporary art, and reflects on a life spent talking and writing about the art he loves, and often loathes.
Nicolas Kent (Executive Producer) and Mandy Chang (Director)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
Ben Whishaw
as Ben Coulter
Criminal Justice
BBC
United Kingdom
Ben, a young man, finds himself accused of murder but is unable to recall what happened. He thinks he should tell the truth but his legal team knows otherwise.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
Julie Walters
as Dr. Anne Turner
A short Stay in Switzerland
BBC
United Kingdom
Diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease nearly identical to the one that killed her husband, Dr. Anne Turner seeks assisted suicide in a Zurich clinic.
CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
Dustbin Baby
Kindle Entertainment
United Kingdom
Dustbin Baby tells the story of April, an adopted teenager, who sets out to find where she came from and, on the way, discovers where she belongs.
Julia Ouston (Producer) and Juliet May (Director)
COMEDY
Hoshi Shinichi’s Short Shorts
Telecom Staff for NHK in association with NHK Enterprises
Japan
Author Hoshi Shinichi has written over 1,000 short stories filled with offbeat humor and trenchant wit. In this program, they find new life at the hands of young artists.
Akemi Yamamoto (Executive Producer) and Toshio Nakanishi (Executive Producer)
DOCUMENTARY
The Ascent of Money
Chimerica Media Limited / Education Broadcasting Corporation for Channel 4
United Kingdom
Professor Niall Ferguson goes on a tour of world finance and demonstrates that behind every great historical phenomenon – empires and republics, wars and revolutions – there lies a financial secret.
Adrian Pennink (Series Director) and Prof. Niall Ferguson (Writer/Host)
DRAMA SERIES
The Protectors
Danish Broadcasting Corporation in association with ZDF / NRK / SVT
Denmark
The Protectors follows a special unit from the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, and their endeavors to protect the fundamental idea of democracy in a changing – and often unstable – world.
Sven Clausen (Producer) and Peter Thorsboe (Series Creator, Writer)
NON-SCRIPTED ENTERTAINMENT
The Phone
Park Lane TV Productions
The Netherlands
A phone, hidden in a public place, keeps ringing until someone takes the call. The contestant is then transported in a world only seen in spy movies.
Willem Brom (Executive Producer) and Adriaan Demenint (Executive Producer)
TELENOVELA
India – A Love Story
TV Globo
Brazil
The untouchable Bahuan, raised by a Brahmin, is in love with Maya. But he knows her family will be against their wedding if they find out the truth.
Glória Perez (Writer) and Marcos Schechtman (Director)
TV MOVIE/MINI-SERIES
The Wolves of Berlin
Ziegler Film GmbH & Co. KG / ZDF
Germany
The Wolves of Berlin is the story of a youth gang starting in 1948 in post war Berlin. The story follows the Wolves through the building of the Berlin wall until its fall in 1989.
Prof. Regina Ziegler (Executive Producer) and Heiner Gatzemeier (Producer)