Lady Gaga Opens Show By Presenting Nigel Lythgoe With International Emmy® Founders Award

WINNERS SPAN 6 COUNTRIES: CHILE (FIRST TIME) BELGIUM, CANADA, PORTUGAL, SWEDEN AND THE UNITED KINGDOM


NEW YORK, November 21, 2011 – The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the 39th International Emmy® Awards tonight at a Gala event held at the New York Hilton, hosted by actor Jason Priestley.

Winners span 6 countries: Chile (first time) Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Sweden and The United Kingdom.

Lady Gaga surprised the audience of over 1,000 international entertainment & media executives by opening the show and presenting The International Emmy Founders Award to Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer of television juggernaut American Idol and the co-creator & executive producer of So You Think You Can Dance.

The International Emmy Directorate Award was presented to Subhash Chandra, Chairman of India’s Zee TV by actress Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) and Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons.

The 10 International Emmy Award Winning programs and performances are:

Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne (Arts Programming), Benidorm Bastards (Comedy), Life with Murder (Documentary), Con que Suenas (Children & Young People), Lacos de Sangre (Telenovela), Millennium (TV Movie/Mini-Series), The World’s Strictest Parents (Non-Scripted Entertainment), Accused (Drama Series), Julie Walters (Best Performance by an Actress) and Christopher Eccleston (Best Performance by an Actor). Complete winners information follows this release.

“We congratulate tonight’s winners for their outstanding achievements as they enter into Emmy history.” said Academy President & CEO Bruce Paisner. “The Academy is proud to be the preeminent global showcase for excellence in television programming and performances.”

2011 INTERNATIONAL EMMY® AWARD WINNERS

ARTS PROGRAMMING
Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne
Twenty Twenty Television
United Kingdom
Gareth Malone is passionate about opera while most British teenagers are not. David Pickard, head of renowned opera house Glyndebourne, wants Malone to help him stage a brand new opera featuring untrained teenagers. Malone has just seven months to find 50 teenagers from all over southeast England and train them from scratch to match the world class standards of Glyndebourne.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
Christopher Eccleston
as Willy Houlihan
Accused
RSJ Films for BBC One
United Kingdom
Lapsed Catholic plumber Willy Houlihan is about to tell his wife Carmel that he’s been cheating on her when their daughter announces she’s getting married. Willy struggles both with his secret and with the costs of the upcoming wedding. He makes a pact with God that he’ll give up his mistress if God will help him with his financial difficulties. Later, Willy finds a packet containing £20,000 in the back of a taxi. He bets it all in a game of roulette and wins; however, it turns out the money is all forged notes and Willy is arrested.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
Julie Walters
as Mo Mowlam
MO
ITV Studios for Channel 4
United Kingdom
Mo Mowlam’s charisma, warmth, passion, and unorthodox approach to politics helps her achieve some monumental landmarks in recent British history.

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
¿Con Qué Sueñas? (What is your Dream?)
Mi Chica Producciones / CNTV / TVN
Chile
¿Con qué Sueñas? explores the world of children. What are their lives like? What makes them happy? What makes them sad? What are their dreams? The show seeks to capture their innocence, fantasies, and imagination, and explores how the places they live in shapes their lives and ways of seeing the world.

COMEDY
Benidorm Bastards
Shelter / VMMA
Belgium
Benidorm Bastards is an edgy hidden camera show that follows seven senior citizens who make it their mission to trick as many young people as they can.

DOCUMENTARY
Life with Murder
JS Kastner Productions / The National Film Board of Canada in association with CTV
Canada
When 20-year-old Mason Jenkins is charged with the murder of his only sibling, 18-year-old Jennifer, his parents are faced with the decision of whether to accept their daughter’s alleged killer back into the family or to sever ties with him, obliterating their family in the process. The film follows their evolving relationship as disturbing new facts surface about the murder and Mason continues to assert his innocence.

DRAMA SERIES
Accused
RSJ Films for BBC One
United Kingdom
Accused tells the stories of people accused of crimes as they sit in the holding cells on the corridor beneath a crown court, awaiting the verdict of their trial.

NON-SCRIPTED ENTERTAINMENT
The World’s Strictest Parents
Twenty Twenty Television
United Kingdom
In each episode of The World’s Strictest Parents, two unruly British teenagers leave their fraught family lives behind and spend 10 days living abroad with a strict host family in an attempt to change their behavior.

TELENOVELA
Laços de Sangue (Blood Ties)
S.I.C. (Sociedade Independente de Comunicação) / TV Globo
Portugal Two sisters are swept away by a river current. Their father manages to save Inês, the older sister, but dies trying to save the younger one, whose body is never recovered. Years later Inês has to fight for João’s love against Diana, the sister everyone thought dead and who has returned to take revenge on Inês.

TV MOVIE/MINI-SERIES
Millennium
Yellow Bird / SVT / ZDF / Nordisk Film
Sweden
Millennium follows investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the ruthless, anti-social computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Together they unravel various crimes – from the mystery of a missing girl, to sex trafficking, to a far reaching government conspiracy, in which Lisbeth herself has suffered severe injustices in connection and has sworn revenge.

About the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a membership based organization comprised of leading media and entertainment figures from over 50 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of television including internet, mobile and technology. The Academy’s yearly schedule of events includes the prestigious International Emmy® Awards Ceremony held in New York, The International Digital Emmy® Awards at MIPTV and a series of industry events such as Academy Day, The International Emmy® World Television Festival and Panels on substantive industry topics. The Academy was chartered with a mission to recognize excellence in television produced outside of the United States and it presents The International Emmy® Awards in the following fifteen categories: Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actress; Best Performance by an Actor; Current Affairs; Children & Young People; Comedy; Digital Program: Children & Young People; Digital Program: Fiction; Digital Program: Non-Fiction; Documentary; Drama Series; News; Non-Scripted Entertainment; Telenovela; TV Movie/Mini-Series. For more information go to www.iemmys.tv.

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The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
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