Nordic content triumphs at Prix Europa

On Friday October 11 in Postdam, the Finnish/Chilean drama series Invisible Heroes directed by Mika Kurvinen was named Best European TV Fiction series. Previous accolades include Special Jury Prize in La Rochelle and Silver Bird Prize at Seoul International Drama Awards. The series inspired by the true events of Finnish diplomats who saved lives of Chilean citizens during the infamous military coup fo1973, premiered successfully on Yle late April. Eccho Rights is representing it at MIPCOM.

The third prize for Best European TV Fiction went to the Norwegian crime drama Twin created by Kristoffer Metcalfe for Nordisk Film Production. The story about mixed identities, with Kristoffer Hivju in a double role, starts airing on NRK October 27. TrustNordisk handles world sales.

The third prize for Best European mini-series was handed out to SVT Drama’s The Days the Flowers Bloom directed by Simon Kaijser from a script by Jonas Gardell. The thee-part series about the frailty of life, seen through the lives of three Swedish families in the 1970s, 1990s and nowadays received positive reviews when it premiered on SVT in January 2019. 

Meanwhile the mind-blowing Swedish documentary The Raft directed by Marcus Lindeen for Fasad added Best European TV documentary of the year to an already long list of accolades. After its world premiered at CPH:DOX 2018 where it won Best International Documentary, the film has travelled to 50 festivals and opened in cinemas in Sweden, Denmark, France, the UK, the US, Mexico among others.

 Other major Nordic TV wins were:

• Best European Online Media Project to the Danish youth series ultra:bit directed by Trine Charlotte Hjort Jensen for DR 
• third prize - Prix Europa Iris-Best European TV programme about cultural diversity to the Swedish programme The Sit-in (Cinelandia) 
• Best European TV Investigation to SVT’s Mission Investigate: Deceptive Diplomacy directed and produced by Axel Gordh Humlesjö.

The pan-European broadcasting festival founded by the European Parliament and the European Commission in 1987, was set this year under the distinctive motto Changing Europe: the Power of Dialogue.