The best of the best

Prize-giving ceremony in the Russian embassy, Unter den Linden, Berlin. (twb)

During the past year a universe of programmes and productions have been broadcast and published. 235 of them, the very best, made it into this year's competition, 5835 voting sheets and 29.175 ratings were processed. The juries have spoken. These are the best of the best.

Success makes you lonesome they say. That's rubbish of course. You came here alone, and you go home accompanied by a bull. Well done!

Category	Title	Country
TV documentary	"Meet the Fokkens"	Netherlands
TV fiction	"We'll Take Manhattan"	UK
TV fiction serial	"The Bridge"	Sweden
TV current affairs	"Permission to Engage"	Netherlands
TV Iris (best multicultural TV programme)	"Special Flight"	Switzerland
TV marketplace of innovation	"Basta"	Belgium
Prix Genève Europe (best TV fiction script)	"Inside"	Netherlands
Languages Through Lenses (students' short films on learning languages)	"Snow White"	Netherlands
Radio documentary	"Holiday for Life – European Dementia Patients in Care in Thailand"	Austria
Radio investigation	"Radio Simoom"	Sweden
Radio fiction	"Category 5: How I Rescued Fats Domino From Hurricane Katrina"	Switzerland
Radio fiction serial	"1-Minute Small"	Netherlands
Radio music (programmes on music)	"Warsaw Variations"	UK
Radio marketplace of innovation	"Hackney Hear"	UK
Online	"The Art of Pho"	Netherlands
Best online innovation	diy.fm – "Radio à la Carte"	Switzerland
Prix Europa lifetime achievement award	Prof. Regina Ziegler	Germany

Snow White

Just in case you do not understand: a) It's all about language learning. b) This blog is in English, Anglais, Englisch, Inglese.

Oh, and c) this short film was done by Wibout Warnaar and Jamille van Wijngaarden, two highly gifted young film makers from the Amsterdam University of  Arts.

Love after all

"Forever Yours", YLE, Finland

Children taken into custody and being raised in foster families will always keep longing for their biological parents. "Forever Yours" (YLE, Finland) tries to explore these bonds - using the example of a child brought to a shelter home, a teenager's life in a foster family, and siblings about to be moved back to their mother after having been separated from her for five years.

"Forever yours" is s slow-paced, sensitive tale on what ties parents and children together, and a powerful film about love and loss in everyday life.

Painting of a monarchy

"Ballad For a Queen", Arte France

2012. Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee. "Ballad For a Queen" ("Ballade pour une reine", Arte France) attempts to draw an unprecedented portrait of the British monarchy and its relations with the public in the last 60 years. The 90-minutes documentary offers a vast amount of so far unpublished material and exclusive and controversial interviews. Even if the film locks out reality and keeps looping glossy scenes of pomp and glory: It paints an enormously rich, sophisticated, multi-faceted image of an anachronism, a political and social icon for generations, and what remains, one way or another, an anchor of stability in a world changing faster and faster.

Thanks to a 86-year old woman, better known as Elizabeth II.

Skateboarding to freedom

"This Ain't California",
Wildfremd Production

The color of the GDR was grey: the walls, the homes, the uniforms, the Plattenbauten and the Trabis: all grey. "The streets were not for playing", as one of the protagonists puts it. And yet there was a life as colorful as it can be: Skateboarding in a dull and uniform world. "This Ain't California" ("Hier ist nicht Kalifornien", Wildfremd Production, Arte, RBB, MDR Leipzig) is a fresh, funny, yet thoughtful and profound documentary telling the story of a skateboard society, of freedom on little wheels, by means of lots and lots of orignal film documents, original music, and animated cartoons. Stunning.

A full-blown 96 minute documentary on the revolutionary power of skateboarding, and despite the underlying tragedies: I can't get the smile out of my face.

Nightmares of the past

"My Name Is Druillet", Catalonian Television

Philippe Druillet is an French artist devoted to the world of comics. He lost his father when he was a young boy, and he knows hardly anything about him. Yet the few things he has heard about his father, Victor Drouillet, being a French fascist having been involved in the persecution of Spanish republicans during the Franco regime - is enough to start a long and turturing quest for the historical truth. "My Name Is Druillet" (Catalonian Television) is an extensive research, a voyage into a violent past, opulent, maybe overburdened, but dense and disturbing.

PS: Philippe Drouillet will not be able to finish the documentary; the truth about his father proves to be too frightening. And yet he has decided to give his own son his father's name: Victor.

Stuff everywhere

"Stuff Everywhere",
Viewpoint Productions, BOS, Netherlands

A simple question may be the starting point: Where's my mobile? We start emptying our pockets and bags and drawers only to discover how much stuff we actually have. (Except for the mobile we were looking for of course. Murphy's Law, but that's another story.) Author Judith de Leeuw does the experiment on herself. She starts meticulously counting, categorizing, listing and displaying all her furniture, knives and forks, clothes, books, gadgets, toys.

"Stuff Everywhere" (Viewpoint Productions, BOS, Netherlands) asks a few seemingly simple questions: Why do we buy so many things? What do they mean to us? What do they tell others about us? Why do things get broken so fast? What will they do to our planet in the end? And, of course, that nasty simple question again and again: How much stuff do we actually have? The video-style film is witty and weird, joyful and choking, orginal and abysmal at the same time. "Stuff everywhere" is a stunning study on the stuff we keep piling up. Brilliant.

Update: 17.534 is the precise number of things Judith de Leeuw ends up with. So far.

Day three: TV documentary

Berlin is cloudy and grey, it keeps drizzling every now and then - just a perfect day for watching TV. Day three: TV documentary.

Where is the blogger?

Radio documentary jury, discussing. (Jan Kopetzky)

Picture puzzle: Where is the blogger?

Up in flames

"Line 32", IDTV Drama,
NCRV, KRO, Netherland 2

A car crashes into a bus full of passengers, the bus overturns and explodes, right in front of a courthouse in which an extreme right-wing politician is about to testify in a controversial case of abuse. An act of terrorism?

"Line 32" (IDTV Drama, NCRV/KRO, Netherland 2) is a thrilling six week journey back in time, untangling the fates of the victims. The amazingly acted eight-part series is set against rising racism in the Netherlands and elsewhere, meant to tell the manifold stories beyond political slogans and newspaper headlines.

The driest place on earth

"Extreme Places With Björnulf",
Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company

Björnulf is a hot-tempered and devoted TV presenter. His project: a series called "Extreme Places". Together with the young photographer Thomas he goes on a journey taking them to the Chilean deserts, possibly the driest place on earth. There things start becoming difficult. Björnulf seems to lose his interest, starts drinking heavily and leaves the work to his friend. So Thomas sets out to explore how the few locals manage to survive in this hostile area.

The abrupt switching between genres and perspectives is irritating and fascinating at the same time. "Extreme Places With Björnulf" (Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company) pretends to be half road movie, half documentary. The series is original and funny, a light-hearted and fast-paced narrative about passion, friendship and about the brinks of human existence.

Merry old London

"Call the Midwife", BBC

London, 1957. Jenny Lee is a nurse and works alongside the nuns of the Order of St. Raymond Nonnatus. Yet the small private East End hospital she believed to work for turns out to be a convent. At first there is a huge cultural shock, but step by step Jenny Lee accepts the poor conditions her fellow sisters live an, but step by step her reserve turns into respect, friendship and love.

Merry old England: "Call the Midwife" (BBC) is warm, bright, light-footed and well-acted, though maybe a bit glossy, a six-part series giving an insight into life in post-war London and the devotion of women dedicating herselves to new-born lives and to charity. (And, of course, to learning to ride a bicycle.)

Note to self

My own TV set has been unemployed for years. I should change that. Seriously.

Between hope and humiliation

"Und alle haben geschwiegen",
Aspekt Telefilm-Produktion Berlin GmbH, ZDF

1964. Like 800.000 children in post-war Germany, Luisa Keller, a 16-years old illegitimate child, is committed to a religious community home. Being reduced to a mere number ("84") she spends traumatic years there which she is to speak about, more than 40 years later, in front of a German Bundestag committee. After a whole life spent in the U.S. Luisa has returned to Germany, not only to unveil the shadows of the past but also to meet Paul again, her childhood sweetheart, an orphan in the same home as well.

"And Everyone Was Silent" ("Und alle haben geschwiegen", Aspekt Telefilm-Produktion Berlin, ZDF) may lack subtlety, but it is a grasping, nightmarish story about heartless authorities, about mental and physic abuse, about humanity and love in spite of humiliation and despotism. "Und alle haben geschwiegen" is shocking, brillantly acted and photographed, leaving the audience speechless and disturbed.

The last things in life

"Clara s'en va mourir", BFC Productions/Arte France

Clara Lilt iis a 43-year old actress on the top of her carreer. And then the evil strikes out at her - lung cancer. She learns that she has two more months to live. It is a short and narrow path she knows well: Her father has died of the same disease before. She decides to put an end to her life out of her own free will.

A plot that might easily tip over and become whiningly melodramatic. It doesn't. Clara's life on stage, as a mother, daughter and sister closely intertwine, and "Clara's Off to Die" ("Clara s'en va mourir", BFC Production/Arte France) is kind of a chamber drama about the last things in life. Even though the plot remains quite linear, the film is straightforward and powerful, yet somewhat distant, maybe overacted and strangely aphoristic, occasionally even shrill and hasty.

Day one: TV fiction

"Business before pleasure" is a German saying. I am neither puritan nor German, so I freely decide to skip the nasty part and go to the movies instead. Day one: TV fiction.

And the winners are...

Prix Europa 2011 award ceremony: The winners on stage. (twb)

So these are the winners of this year's Prix Europa, that amazing media festival awarding the best of the best public service productions: Congratulations! Well done! By today you belong to Europe's best media makers.

(And tidy up your desk – the Prix Europa bull will need some space.)

• TV Documentary: The Snow Ball War Darkness (Norway), Enemy Engagement (Germany)
• TV Current Affairs: Lost Honour – The Story of the Sürücü Family (Germany)
• TV Fiction: Sherlock – A Study In Pink (United Kingdom), The Strongest Man in Holland (The Netherlands)
• Prix Geneve Europe (best TV fiction script): Combat Girls (Germany)
• TV Iris (best multicultural TV programme): Winter of Love (The Netherlands)
• Languages Through Lenses (students' short films on learning languages): The Importance of Speaking Two Languages (Italy)
• Radio Documentary: My Grandfather’s Doublelife (Denmark), Ladies of the Manor – Scenes from a Marriage of Convenience (Austria)
• Radio Fiction: Tacet (Silence 2) (Germany), Home Goal (France)
• Radio Music (programmes on music): WDR 3 Favourites (Germany)
• Online: Nowhere Safe (France)
• Lifetime Achievement Award Radio: Raina Konstantinova (EBU)

The Top Five

Whatever production has made it to the Prix Europa, you will agree, belongs to the best productions there are. Yet, not any of them can win one of the bulls. So here is what the jurys have considered the top five of any category, the very essence of this year's Prix Europa.

No voting for "Farewell Comrades!"

It must have been a hard decision: The Online jury decided that they would not vote on "Farewell Comrades!" (entered by Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion Berlin, Arte France and ZDF), undoubtedly one of the most exciting projects presented in this year's competition. The reason for this is simple: The project had not been finished yet, and the glances the jury was able to have did not allow a final decision. Hence, no votes, no prize, at least not this year: "Farewell Comrades!", to be launched on November 1, has already been pre-nominated for the Prix Europa 2012.

Do you agree? Comments anyone?

Update: the Prix Europa press release on the subject.

Election for kids

Involving kids with politics: This is what "Lilla's Election Check" is all about. The crossmedia TV and web project was launched by the Swedish SVT in 2010, and it aimed at explaining the political process behind Sweden's general election. In the online project every aspect is assigned to a character: "Pelle" guides the visitor through ideologies, "Stephan" offers a stroll in parliament, "Andrea" explains the voting system, and "Madde" talks about democracy and dictatorship. Crossmedia for tomorrow's citizens: unconventional and inventive.