Brazil 'Makes History' At Emmy Awards

The winners of this year's International Emmy awards have been announced. The ceremony - which recognises excellence in television produced outside the United States - declared the winners of the awards, now in their 37th year, at a gala event held in the New York Hilton.
Hosted by British television celebrity Graham Norton, the awards made history with Brazil taking home their first ever International Emmy Award for the Telenovela India-A Love Story.




Overall, the winners span six countries including Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
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.


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 in five categories including both performance categories. Best performance by an actor went to Ben Whishaw for his performance as Ben Coulter in Criminal Justice.
Best performance by an actress was awarded to Julie Walters for her performance as Dr. Anne Turner in A Short Stay in Switzerland.



British programmes also won in the arts programming, children and young people and documentary categories.


"We congratulate tonight's winners for their outstanding achievements.
All the nominated programmes and performances are a true inspiration for all of us in the industry and for audiences worldwide," said Academy President, Bruce Paisner.




Sir David Frost, one of the prominent television figures of the 20th century whose interviews with President Richard Nixon were immortalised 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 seven 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.




For more information go to www.iemmys.tv
(BMcN/BMcC)