Monte-Carlo Television Festival Winners Include ‘Le Colosse Aux Pieds d’Argile’, ‘Ten Pound Poms’ & ‘The Seed’

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous creator and X-Men: First Class and Thor screenwriter Zack Stentz is aboard for animated movie The White Tower, inspired by Robert Jordan’s hit graphic novel series The Wheel of Time.

Charli XCX is the queen of hyper pop!

American Idol alum David Archuleta competed on the show in 2008. Most of his fellow contestants are no longer making music – but he still is. And it’s great!

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sales agency The Playmaker has signed with Lieblingsfilm to handle international sales for their Zlin Film Festival winner “What the Finn?!” (“Kannawoniwasein”). “What the Finn?!” is based on the children’s book by Martin Muser, which was adapted for the screen by Klaus Döring, Adrian Bickenbach and Stefan Westerwelle, who is also the director of the film. The film had its world premiere at Zlin, where it won the main prize, the Golden Slipper Award for Best Feature Film for Children. The Playmaker will present “What the Finn?!” at the upcoming German Films Previews in Potsdam (July 5 – 8), where it will screen for international buyers.

Brian Cox is weighing in on the future of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) after executive changes at the cable network made Hollywood worry Warner Bros. Discovery was ready to pull the plug.

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Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks and Carol Littleton will receive honorary Oscars at this year’s Governors Awards, announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards. The four statuettes will be presented at the 14th annual ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023, in Los Angeles. “The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” said Academy President Janet Yang. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her. A pillar of the independent film community, Michelle Satter has played a vital role in the careers of countless filmmakers around the world.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 28th edition of the Shanghai TV Festival wrapped up on Friday with its Magnolia Awards presented to a range of TV drama series, documentaries and animation programs. The drama awards were dominated by two shows “A Lifelong Journey” and “Bright Future.” “A Lifelong Journey,” adapted from a novel of the same name by Liang Xiaosheng, tells the story of three generations of one family in China’s Northeast as time moves from the late Cultural Revolution period through to the country’s reform and opening up. With a starry cast and broadcasters including CCTV-1 and Jiangsu Satellite TV, the show is reported to have attracted 310 million viewers at the beginning of 2022. In mainland China, it ran for 58 episodes, while in Hong Kong it played in 35 parts.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The members of the international juries that will decide the Magnolia prizes at the ongoing Shanghai Television Festival were Thursday made to do double duty as speakers in public masterclasses that were open to a generation of aspiring documentary and animation makers. David Stephan, jury president in the animation category, along with fellow judges Spencer Ooi and Jia Fou, spoke at length about getting their starts in the business and finding inspiration. “When I studied animation, I didn’t have a textbook available. I saw extremely limited things, so I did further research to make myself understand what I was doing in such a career,” said Jia.

Princess Charlene of Monaco is simply stunning during a rare, solo appearance!

Ben Croll Winner of the audience award and prize for best creation at this year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival, six-part drama “The Seed” mixes Scandi-noir, ecological concerns and corridors-of-power intrigue into a tense geopolitical thriller that turns around the most elemental of concerns. “Beneath all the thriller convention we explore this question of who feeds the world,” says show creator Christian Jeltsch. “Because whoever feeds the world has a hold on political power, and today only three companies supply us all.” The seeds (ahem) of the idea were planted years ago, when Jeltsch read about mercenaries destroying a seed vault in Aleppo and connected the idea to the very real Svalbard Global Seed Vault just off the North Pole. The wheels began turning, the seeds took to sprouting, and soon the show-writer had a narrative full of international intrigue that begins when a young German activist goes missing on the Norwegian northern archipelago.

Julie Vincent Guest Contributor On Tuesday, Danny Brocklehurst’s “Ten Pound Poms” won the Golden Nymph award for best series at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. Lead actors Faye Marsay and Warren Brown sat down with Variety during the festival to discuss the show. The co-production between the U.K.’s BBC and the Australian streaming service Stan follows a group of Brits as they leave dreary post-war Britain in 1956 to embark on a life-altering adventure on the other side of the world. For only 10 British pounds, they have been promised a better house, better job prospects, and a better quality of life by the sea in sun-soaked Australia. But life down under isn’t exactly the idyllic dream the new arrivals have been promised.

Ben Croll “The Fragile Colossus,” “Ten Pound Poms” and “The Seed” ruled the roost at this year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival, with the three programs collecting two prizes each at a small-screen showcase that ran June 16 – 20 in the Monaco capital. Produced by Make It Happen Studio and Shoot Again Productions in partnership with TF1 France, telefilm “The Fragile Colossus” took home Monte-Carlo’s Golden Nymph for best film and the special jury prize. The French drama follows a one-time rugby star (played by soccer player-turned-actor Eric Cantona) confronting his history as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and is based on the life and memoires of rugbyman Sébastien Boueilh.

Josh Duhamel and wife Audra Mari are back on the red carpet for the premiere of Buddy Games 2: Spring Awakening during the 2023 Monte Carlo TV Festival on Sunday (June 18) in Monaco.

Zeeko Zaki‘s fiancée Renee Monaco is showing off her engagement ring!

Raymond Lee is showing off his better half – Stacy Kusumolkul – on the red carpet while attending the 2023 Monte Carlo TV Festival in Monaco over the weekend.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Speaking at Monte-Carlo Television Festival Sunday, cast members from the fantasy series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” expressed their feelings about the racist trolls who objected to the Prime Video show’s diverse and inclusive casting when it first launched. Last month, Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays the Elven warrior Arondir, told Variety that Prime Video provided an on-set therapist to help the actors deal with the racist backlash against its casting. He revealed it wasn’t just attacks on social media. “My phone got hacked. I had bank account attempts of being hacked. My PayPal got hacked. My friends got messages. I got death threats. I got things mailed to me. People found out my address. It was a lot of that,” Córdova recalled.

Ben Croll Without a market component, the Monte-Carlo Television Festival has nevertheless built out and bulked up its industry section with each passing edition. More than anything, the move came out of sheer practicality, says executive director Cécile Menoni. “We realized that the professionals who were already present could benefit from certain professional content,” Menoni explains. “The idea was to involve the many people who were already in attendance. To federate the juries, nominees and journalists, and to convey their overall vision of cotemporary industry concerns.” This year’s festival business program runs from June 17 – 19, beginning with a conversation moderated by Variety’s Leo Barraclough that will find Amazon Studio’s Rola Bauer and executive producer Edward Ornelas discussing the challenges and opportunities, casting choices and artistic ambitions of the festival’s opening series, “Harlan Corben’s Shelter.”

Ben Croll Running the Monte-Carlo Television Festival since 2012, Laurent Puons has always tried to look ahead. From his embrace of streamers and digital platforms back in 2017 to his growing emphasis on diverse formats, the festival director sees his summer showcase as a bellwether event for the wider television industry – and what the industry could use right now, in Puons’ view, is flexibility.  “There are already so many festivals today dedicated to series,” Puons explains. “But Monte-Carlo follows a wholly different concept. We’re a home for all kinds of content, and one of the only festivals with both fiction and factual competitions. And when you see what’s broadcast on platforms like Netflix and Amazon, [you need to cover that full range.]”