HBO's 'Game of Thrones,' 'Game Change' Win Top Prizes at Monte Carlo TV Festival

HBO emerged victorious on Thursday night with top prizes for Game of Thrones and Game Change as the 52nd Monte Carlo TV festival wrapped with its annual Golden Nymph awards ceremony at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum.

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HBO and producers David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Frank Doelger and Carolyn Strauss won the outstanding international producer prize for Game of Thrones. Woody Harrelson was named best actor for his role as campaign strategist Steve Schmidt in Game Change. Modern Family’s Christopher Lloyd and Steve Levitan were named best international producers of a comedy series for ABC’s Emmy-winning show.

The International TV Audience Awards went to CSI for best drama series, to Desperate Housewives for best comedy series and to The Bold and the Beautiful for best soap opera. The Bold and the Beautiful held its 25th birthday party at the festival this year complete with cast appearances.

The jury called Jason Priestley best actor in a comedy series for his role in Call Me Fitz and 30 Rock star Tina Fey was named best actress in that category. Mille Denisen was named best actress in a drama series for Danish show Rita. Henning Baum took home the best actor award in that category for his role on German series The Last Cop. NHK’s Yasu: A Single Father’s Story was named best mini-series and Germany’s Hager Moss Films’ The Last Fine Day  won the award for best TV movie. The outstanding European producer prize went to Scarlett Productions’ Joey Fare for Canal Plus’ hit series Kaboul Kitchen.

Disney’s Anne Sweeney received a Golden Nymph of Honor from His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Monaco himself as the fest ended its five-day run.

Rosanna Arquette presided over the TV films jury and screenwriter and producer Josh Schwartz served as president of the TV Series jury.

Monaco may already have a prince, but Eva Longoria served as this year’s unofficial festival princess. The Desperate Housewives actress stole the spotlight as Gallic press swooned and her bodyguards were forced to step in to shield her from photographers and fans.

This year’s festival was politically-charged as Longoria talked about her support for Barack Obama at a press conference, HBO premiered new series Veep and Law & Order: SVU star Richard Belzer incurred the wrath of the Anti-Defamation League after a satirical nazi salute on the red carpet. Bored to Death star Ted Danson livened up the festival as did Castle star Nathan Fillion and Revenge stars Emily Van Camp, Madeleine Stowe and Joshua Bowman who were all popular with local and French-imported press.

The closing gala’s red carpet featured H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, Longoria, Stowe, Danson and Fillion plus Chad Michael Murray and Mayim Bialik among other talents from the U.S. small screen.


The five-day event on the French Riviera also featured screenings of Homeland, Glee, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Downton Abbey, a rendezvous with producers Dick Wolf and Howard Gordon and lunch with Dr. Oz.