Canada and UK pick up most Roses

Producers from Canada and the UK won the most awards at last night’s Rose D’Or awards in Lucerne, Switzerland, while US-produced reality series I Survived a Japanese Game Show won the Golden Rose for best overall show.

Canada’s Locomotion TV won the best drama award for Windfall & Misfortune, about a dysfunctional lottery-winning family. Best comedy was won by half-hour satirical series Rick Mercer Report, which was submitted by Island Edge. Canadian companies also won both new categories at the awards show, best multiplatform and best pitch awards for Xenophile Media’s MI High, Whack the Mole and Productions Pixcom’s The Telephone respectively.

Best sitcom was won by high-rating UK series My Family, from DLT Entertainment and Rude Boy and best gameshow was won by UK indie Zig Zag, which triumphed with Relentless, in which contestants are challenged to answer questions over a 48-hour period, without knowing exactly when they will be quizzed. Oxford Films and Television won best doc with The Curse of the Mona Lisa, about the famous Da Vinci picture.

The winning shows were picked from 424 submissions emanating from 33 countries. The winners were selected by a 25 member jury.