MIPTV: Brazil’s ‘Jailers’ Takes Top Honors in Drama Screenings

Brazilian broadcaster Globo’s prison drama Jailers on Sunday took the Grand Jury prize at the sophomore edition of MIPTV’s MIPDrama Screenings competition. 

The jury, presided over by The X-Files and The Man in the High Castle creator Frank Spotnitz, also awarded Germany’s roaring twenties crime drama Babylon Berlin the Work in Progress honor.

Spotnitz was joined on the jury by The Bridge executive producer Lars Blomgren, Homeland executive producer Ran Tellem, Spiral screenwriter Virginie Brac and Versailles and Yves Saint Laurent director Jalil Lespert to award prizes for the best international dramas.

“A lot of companies presently push to do a certain type of show or are told what will sell. What struck me was the creativity in the selection,” said Spotnitz. 

Lespert seconded the notion, noting that each show in the selection was bold and that he appreciated “the originality and audacity of this slection.”

Among the other competitors in the Full Episodes category were: BBC Three’s Clique, Channel 4’s Gap Year and ITV’s Fearless, all from the U.K.; Russia offered mystery series The Territory; and Sweden’s Veni Vid Vici rounded out the selection.

Babylon Berlin and Bad Banks competed in the Works in Progress category alongside Canada’s Bad Blood, Russia’s Better Than Us and Denmark’s Ride Upon the Storm, which took home the second audience award.

Separate critics’ and buyers’ juries awarded prizes as well. In the Work in Progress category, both selected the Danish father-son drama Ride Upon the Storm.

French contemporary sci-fi series Missions took home the critics’ best Full Episode award. The show follows a group of astronauts as they try to make their way back to Earth from Mars in an alternative timeline.

The second year of MIPDrama Screenings comes as the city of Cannes is prepared to launch a full-fledged festival for series next year that will run alongside the TV industry confab.

Plans for the festival’s launch in 2018 are expected to be unveiled Monday afternoon during a press conference with former culture minister Fleur Pellerin and Cannes Mayor David Lisnard.

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