Mipcom Diversify TV Awards: BBC Studios Scores a Double, Canadas Club Illico, Spains Atr

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Spotlighting diversity in the international television market, eight projects took home awards at Mipcom’s Diversify TV Awards.

Presented at the Cannes Palais des Festivals’ Grand Auditorium, the winners were selected from 165 countries submitted by 27 countries for the 7th edition of the event. 

BBC Studios documentary “Inside Our Autistic Minds” won in the representation of disability, non-scripted category. The series takes us inside the minds of autistic people. Co-produced in partnership with The Open University, in the production Chris Packham explores the lives of autistic people across the U.K. and brings their experience to life in short films.

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In another high-profile win, the Fremantle-sold “Little Bird” from Canada won in the representation of race and ethnicity – scripted category. The story follows an Indigenous woman looking for her birth family and the truth about her past. The production companies are Rezolution Pictures, and OP Little Bird.

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Spain’s “Nights in Tefía” won in the LGBTQIA+ – scripted category. 

An eye-opening account of Spain’s real-life gulags under dictator Francisco Franco, little known even to Spaniards these days, the drama series flashes back to one gay camp inmate,  his days of forced labor, beatings and rape and how his time there was made bearable, by nightly tales imagined by another inmate, set at the fictitious Tindaya, the most famous music hall in the capital. 

Buendía Estudios Canarias produces with Atresmedia SVOD service Atresplayer Premium, and Atresmedia TV, the original broadcaster.

In the representation of disability, scripted category, Canada’s “About Antoine,” a 2023 Berlinale Series Market Selects title produced by ComediHa!, won for a portrait of a non-verbal, multi-handicapped comedian! He cannot express himself in words, but can communicate what he wants and needs through pictograms and sounds. The original broadcaster is Club Illico.

Cambodia’s “Lotus Sports Club” won in the representation of LGBTQIA+, non-scripted category. Filmed in Cambodia over a five-year period, this coming-of-age story centers around a teenage trans man who plays football in the under-21s women’s team of Kampong Chhnang, and Pa Vann, his coach and the father figure to several LGBTQ+ players on the team. 

The award in the representation of race and ethnicity, non-scripted, went to “The Swap” from Australia. The three-part documentary turns on a swap between students at an Islamic and students at a Catholic school. The producer is Southern Pictures. 

Representation of diversity in kids programming – pre-school went to

“Reu and Harper’s Wonder World” (U.K.). Originally broadcast on Channel 5, it was produced by Doc Hearts. In the series, Reu and Harper meet children from families from far away now living in the U.K.

Representation of diversity in kids programming, older children, went to “Phoenix Rise” (U.K.) from BBC Studios Kids & Family division. In the series, six outsiders stick together to try to survive school. “A show about second chances,” it is created by “EastEnders” and “Coronation Street” writers. 

The 2023 awards included a behind the scenes impact award to a figure providing inspiration in diversity and inclusivity.

The award went to Deborah Williams, CEO of the U.K.’s Creative Diversity Network, which has done pioneering work across the film and TV industries in this regard. 

Amongst those presenting awards at the ceremony were award-winning Muslim playwright and performer Bilal Baig, and celebrated Paralympian and documentary maker Ellie Simmonds OBE.

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