RADIO – DOCUMENTARIES
The Jury: Alfred Koch (ORF Austria), Mary Lynk (CBC/SRC Canada), Darko Tralic (HRT Croatia), Jesper Dein (DR Denmark), Ulf Köhler (ARD Germany), Emi Komiya (NHK Japan), Ksenia Lamshina (RTR Russia), Tana Kusa (RTVSLO Slovakia) The President: Willem Davids (NPO Netherlands), General assistance: Letizia Gilardino
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1st OVERALL QUALITY:
Sense and Sensibility (NRK – Norway) by Lasse Nederhoed [AUDIO]
An intense and revealing portrait of an ADHD adult and his father. What struck the jurors was the
intimate picture of anger, frustration and heartbreak. The pacing was excellent and the impact
unsettling and provocative.
1st EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINALITY AND/OR INNOVATION:
Wireless Nights 1. “Overnight Delivery” (BBC – United Kingdom) by Laurence Grissell [AUDIO]
A highly atmospheric piece. It was about the night, and indeed through technical virtuosity, the
listener “felt the night”. The stories were distilled to full impact. The narrator’s tone and delivery
was pitch perfect. And the stories were well constructed and intertwined.
SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC
Souteigai – Beyond Imagination, Japan and the Threefold Catstrophe (Deutschlandradio Kultur, Coprod. Bayerischer Rundfunk – Germany) by Malte Jaspersen [AUDIO trailer, – full story]
(NOTE: Chosen by ‘The ‘Special Prize … jury’. This year: academician and journalist Gilles Pecaut (France), of well-known writer and journalist Alberto Toscano (Italy), and James Graham (UK), Honorary President of the Prix Italia)
The silver cup of the President of the Italian Republic is awarded each year to a radio programme, also in competition in the official category of the Prix, and which is dedicated to important current issues.
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General Considerations
There were 9 jurors in our group and 39 documentary entries. After our listening sessions, there were a few remarkable issues.
Firstly, there were no clear stand outs amongst the documentaries.
Secondly, there was often a lack of a strong narrative arc in the storytelling. The jurors felt for the most part, the documentaries needed more engaging beginnings, more tension and more complex and compelling endings.
Thirdly, the sound quality was sometimes unnecessarily poor and therefore damaged the storytelling.
That being said, there were still many remarkable programs. And the jurors felt good in the end about their final decisions in terms of the winners.
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IFC AudioDocs 