Canneseries Awards: ’The Zweiflers,’ ‘Rather Burn’ Take Top Prizes
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Fockers who? Meet “The Zweiflers” instead: Brand new winners of Canneseries.
Created and showrun by David Hadda, the show picked up multiple awards at the French TV fest on Wednesday, including best series and music. Selected as a Variety Hot Pick earlier this month, “it’s destined to be billed as a Jewish ‘Succession’ set in contemporary Germany, with all the baggage that can bring to the table, Variety wrote.
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That being said, its creator had another dysfunctional family on his mind.
“My biggest influence was ‘The Sopranos’ and I always said I wanted to do a Jewish ‘Sopranos’! The idea was to change the narrative from the victims’ perspective in Germany to a Jewish patriarch and Holocaust survivor who had lost everything – and everyone, and then came back to rebuild his life. That was empowering for me,” said Hadda.
Produced by Turbokultur for ARD Degeto Film and Hessischer Rundfunk, it’s distributed by ZDF Studios.
Jurors Sofie Gråbøl, Amine Bouhafa, Alix Poisson, Olivier Abbou, Macarena García and Alice Braga also embraced their inner silliness, however, granting Norway another win following last year’s success of “Power Play.” In “Dumbsday,” awarded for Christopher Pahle’s screenplay, the zombie apocalypse is upon us. And, thanks to a virus that renders people dumber than Harry and Lloyd, it has never been stupider.
On the acting front, Aina Clotet picked up a trophy for Catalan parenting dramedy “This Is Not Sweden” which she stars in and co-created, co-directed and co-wrote. An instance of what Catalonia and Spain can bring to the table in terms of international co-production, “This Is Not Sweden” “turns on the deep fears of parenting, and parents’ “firm will to give our children the maximum guarantees for the future. A high level of demand that, of course, led us to enormous frustration,” Clotet has said.
The entire cast of “Operation Sabre” scored a Special Interpretation Award. The series deals with the assassination of Serbia’s first democratically elected PM Zoran Đinđić.
“It’s about collective responsibility. Everyone is responsible, in one way or another. These people were a part of our society too, so how do you get to that point? We want to understand them, because then maybe you can make sure it won’t happen again,” Vladimir Tagić, who co-created the show with Goran Stanković. Beta Film handles distribution.
While “DJ Mehdi: Made in France” triumphed among documentaries, “Rather Burn,” written by Sebastián Tornamira, was named Best Short Form Series.
Younger viewers have spoken as well, with High School and Student Awards for Best Series going to “The Zweiflers” and Finland’s “Money Shot” respectively.
In the latter, ex-porn star decides to make the kind of erotic films women would actually want to see. Luckily, she soon befriends an aspiring female director.
“She decides to take control of her own life and, against all odds, finds a friend in Linnea, who is from a completely different background and half her age. Together, they are able to create something nobody expected from them: Popular porn for women, done with respect for themselves and everyone who works for them,” the show’s star, Pihla Viitala, told Variety. Creator Jemina Jokisalo added:
“What I believe, from the bottom of my heart, is that we will always need shows that make us laugh. That’s not an easy thing to do, but laughter will always win audiences over, especially when times are challenging.”
“It’s the first time the High School and Best Series Awards go to the same title. As for the rest [of results], I think they represent the diversity of the series that we have,” noted artistic director Albin Lewi, praising “The Zweiflers,” but also opening up about the edition that welcomed the likes of Kyle Maclachlan, Michael Douglas or Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, a Golden Globe winner for “Pose.”
“We were able to bring stars and series of international quality, including ‘Franklin’ and ‘Fallout.’ That’s the magic of Cannes. It’s the best city to organize an ambitious festival like ours and I think we have passed the test. The festival has been growing, edition after edition.”
But local stories are also important.
“There was a standing ovation after the screening of ‘DJ Mehdi’ – a show that was extremely powerful. The cinema was full and everyone was crying at the end. That’s really what you expect from a festival,” he said.
The full list of winners here:
LONG FORM COMPETITION
Best Series
“The Zweiflers” (Germany)
Best Screenplay
“Dumbsday” (Norway)
Best Performance
Aina Clotet for “This Is Not Sweden” (Spain, Sweden, Germany, Finland)
Special Interpretation Award
The cast of “Operation Sabre” (Serbia, Bulgaria)
Best Music
“The Zweiflers”
SHORT FORM COMPETITION
Best Short Form Series
“Rather Burn” (Argentina, Spain)
Student Award for Best Short Form Series
“Money Shot” (Finland)
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
“DJ Mehdi: Made in France” (France)
High School Award for Best Series
“The Zweiflers”
John Hopewell contributed to this article
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