Adolescence leads the pack as Rose d’Or Awards celebrate global creativity

Co-creator Jack Thorne (third from left) and director Philip Barantini (third from right) were among the Adolescence team attending the Rose d’Or Awards

CONTENT LONDON: Netflix’s British drama sensation Adolescence emerged as one of the biggest winners at the 64th annual Rose d’Or Awards presented at C21’s Content London this evening.

The awards honoured winners from a broad international field, spanning Belgium, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Brazil and Israel, as well as the US and the UK.

Adolescence focuses on a teenage boy accused of killing a girl from his school. The limited series claimed the Drama and Golden Rose accolades, while young star Owen Cooper was recognised as Emerging Talent of the Year for his breakthrough performance.

The judges called the show “an extraordinary, sector-changing achievement – a set of outstanding production techniques used to rewire storytelling for a vital collective issue of our time,” and “simply the show of the year.”

Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne, who was at Kings Place to accept the awards, said: “This is a show that attempted to look at something quite complicated… There are those who believe that the kids are fine, that we need to leave them to their freedom… But we are conducting a giant science experiment with immature brains, and some teenagers will be profoundly affected by the loneliness and toxicity of the online space. If you have any sort of power… please check that the teenagers you’re responsible for are OK… The idea that we provoked a bit of talk on people’s sofas with Adolescence means the world.”

Comedian Dara Ó Briain hosted this year’s ceremony

Meanwhile, the Performance of the Year Award went to the ensemble cast of the hit HBO Spain comedy drama Furia (Rage).

Creator Félix Sabroso said: “This generous and brilliant cast is a gift, portraying five women who represent different cracks in the system, pushed to their limits to create a satirical portrait of the current moment.”

Anne Reid was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, recognised for a remarkable career spanning more than six decades, from her early breakthrough in Coronation Street, through acclaimed roles in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV and Dinnerladies, to Last Tango in Halifax and the recently released BBC series Riot Women, both of which were written by Sally Wainwright.

Wainwright, who has also written other projects starring Reid, paid tribute to the actor: “Annie has that extraordinary quality of realness that so few actors have… You can’t see her acting – she just is. The nuance and the subtlety does take your breath away… I can’t imagine anyone who deserves this award more.”

Seth Rogen’s Apple TV series The Studio won the Best Comedy Drama or Sitcom prize. The judges described it as “a brilliant contemporary satire of art versus business versus ambition versus humanity turned up to 11. So accurate and hilarious you can only watch through your fingers.”

Japan took the Comedy Entertainment prize with Ants, while Norway won in Competition Reality for The Box, described by the judges as “brilliantly unique, high octane and entertaining.”

In Arts, Belgium secured the prize with Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.

Other big-name winners included the BBC’s animated film Tiddler in Children and Youth; Sky’s long-running hit A League of Their Own for Studio Entertainment; and Channel 4’s The Jury: Murder Trial for Factual Entertainment and Reality. The Ballad of Scout & the Alcohol Tag, produced by the Prison Radio Association for the BBC, won in audio.

Mark Rowland, chair of the Rose d’Or, said: “Congratulations to the winners and to everyone from a remarkable field of more than 600 entries from 30 countries. Each year the bar rises again. The ambition, craft and imagination on display across these categories is extraordinary, and our judges had an exceptionally tough job choosing between so many outstanding programmes.”

The full list of winners is:

Arts
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Onomatopee Films & Warboys Films, Mediawan, VRT Canvas, Belgium

Audio
The Ballad of Scout & the Alcohol Tag
Prison Radio Association, UK

Children and Youth
Tiddler
Magic Light Pictures, BBC, BBC One, UK

Comedy Drama and Sitcom
The Studio
Lionsgate Television in association with Apple, Apple TV, USA

Comedy Entertainment
Ants
Nippon TV, Fremantle, Japan

Competition Reality
The Box
Seefood TV, Seefood Distribution, TV 2 Norway, Norway

Documentary
Louis Theroux: The Settlers
Mindhouse Productions Ltd, BBC Two, UK

Drama
Adolescence
Warp Films, Matriarch Productions, Plan B for Netflix, Netflix, UK

Factual Entertainment and Reality
The Jury: Murder Trial
ScreenDog Productions, Blue Ant, Channel 4, UK

Multiplatform Series
Oorlogsdetective
KRO-NCRV, NPO, NPO 3 Zapp, Netherlands

News and Current Affairs
We Will Dance Again
Sipur Studios, Bitachon365, HSCC Slutzky Communication, Osmosis Global, Hot 8 (Israel), Paramount+ (US), BBC (UK), Israel

Soap or Telenovela
Guerreiros do Sol, Love is a Knife
Estúdios Globo, Globoplay, Brazil

Studio Entertainment
A League of Their Own
CPL Productions, Seven.One Studios, Sky Max, UK