Aussies win big at Series Mania

Australian-based titles have won multiple awards at the prestigious Series Mania Festival in Lille, France.

House of Gods actor Kamel El Basha won Best Actor in the International Competition section. The Matchbox Pictures series is currently screening on ABC.

Annette Bening, who filmed Apples Never Fall in Queensland, won Best Actor in the same section.

Melbourne-based production company, Pikelet Pictures won the Comedy series award for their debut series Videoland.

New Zealand’s Robyn Malcolm picked up the Best Actress award in International Panorama for After the Party, produced by Lingo Pictures and coming soon to ABC.

Series Mania concluded with two records 98 000 spectators and more than 4200 accredited TV professionals at the Forum, the Industry sidebar of the Festival.

The Grand Prize went to Rematch, a French miniseries made for Arte a period psychological thriller chronicling the historical battle between world chess champion Garry Kasparov (Christian Cooke), and IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997.

International Competition
Grand Prize: “Rematch”
Best Actress: Annette Bening, “Apples Never Fall”
Best Actor: Kamel El Basha “House of Gods”
Best Writing: “Herrhausen – The Banker and the Bomb”

International Panorama
Best Series: “Dates in Real Life”
Best Actress: Robyn Malcolm, “After the Party”
Best Actor: Karlis Arnolds Avots, “Soviet Jeans”
Best Direction: “Las Mesias”

French Competition:
Best Series: “Machine”
Best Actress: Tiphaine Daviot, “Murder Club”
Best Actor: Jérémy Gillet, “A Dangerous Friendship”
Best Original Score: Julie Roué, “The World Doesn’t Exist”

Short Form Competition
Best Series: “Those Who Blush”

Student Award
Best Series: “Las Mesias”

Comedy Competition
Best Series: “Videoland”

Audience Award:
“Soviet Jeans”

Videoland writer/director Jessica Smith, said “I’m thrilled, and a little shocked, we didn’t expect it. But at the same time, the entire cast and crew put their heart and souls into this series, and I really think it shows on screen, so to have that recognised at such a prestigious and competitive festival feels incredible. It was a huge win for us, especially as a comedy. You never know how well your jokes are going to land for an international audience but they really embraced it. And while this was a very personal story to me, it’s certainly not a unique one and it was wonderful being reminded how universal the themes are. Looking at where all the awards went, I think representation of diverse stories was the big winner on the night, and that’s exciting to be a part of.”