Little Lunch wins in Munich

ABC3 drama Little Lunch has won the Prix Jeunesse International Award for Best Fiction Program for 7-10 year olds in Munich.

The Gristmill Production was also the runner up for the Children’s Jury Prize in the same category.

The award was voted by the 565 delegates at the children’s television festival, comprising international broadcasters, producers and academics.

Remarkably, it was also a win endorsed by child viewers in Germany. All of the entries in the 7 – 10 Fiction category were voiced in German and screened for 500 children. Little Lunch was the only show in its category to be one of the top three shows for both adult and child voters, becoming the runner up in the Children’s Jury Prize.

“It is hard to describe how difficult and rare it is to win a prize at Prix Jeunesse,” explains Australian Children’s Television Foundation CEO Jenny Buckland.

“The voters come from so many different cultural perspectives and their expectations for children’s content are very high. More often than not they choose the worthy programs over the funny ones. But Little Lunch had real cut through with everyone because it is such a unique format for children, the performances and direction of the young cast is so outstanding and the sense of humour, which we had felt was so distinctively Australian, turns out to be universal.

“Huge congratulations to (producers) Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope – they have won a very special award for Little Lunch.”

Gristmill is now filming two specials to air at Halloween and Christmas.