International success at Banff Television Festival

The Banff Rockie Awards 2003, which recognize excellence across 14 television programme categories, representing the widest range of television genres, produced a night of international achievement in Alberta, Canada, on Monday evening.
The highly acclaimed ‘Chavez - Inside the Coup’, brought success to Ireland, after it won the $50,000 Global Television Grand Prize, and was named Best Information and Current Affairs Programme.
In the Animation and Children’s Youth categories, the Banff student jury awarded the Best Animation prize to ‘Monkey Dust’, produced by Talkback for the BBC, and the US walked away with Best Children’s and Youth Programme for ‘Our America’.
The BBC’s ‘Pear Shaped’, a series of thematically linked short dramas, and a German TV film ‘Coming Home’, won two Special Jury Prizes for programmes with exceptional qualities that merited recognition.
The BBC also secured a number of other major awards. The Best Made-for-TV Movie was ‘Tomorrow La Scala!’ and Best Mini-Series, went to ‘Daniel Deronda’. Best Arts Documentary, went to ‘Andy Warhol – The Complete Picture’ produced for Channel 4.
The $25,000 NHK President’s Prize for the Best High Definition TV Entry, went to a Japanese documentary, which chronicles the horrors of the Hiroshima bombing. ‘Drawing A-Bomb Memories’ was also named Best History and Biography Programme.
Russia made their mark in history, when two programmes produced solely by Russians, won Best Animation Programme for ‘About a Fisherman and a Fish’, and also Best Children’s and Youth Programme, ‘Spartak and Kalashnikov’.
The American also won their fair share of awards at Banff 2003.The prize for Best Continuing Series went to ‘West Wing’. HBO’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ won the Best Comedy for a Christmas episode entitled ‘Mary, Joseph, and Larry’. ‘FRONTLINE: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero’ won Best Social and Political Documentary and ‘Farang Ba’ (Crazy White Foreigner), from the US and Thailand, was awarded Best Sports Programme.
Australia picked up the Best Popular Science and Natural History Programme award for ‘Ted’s Evolution’, Israel won Best Short Drama for ‘Two Minutes from Faradis’, and Canada for Best Performance Programme ‘Le Mozart Noir – Reviving a Legend’.
(MM)