2023's Best TV Recognised at the Venice TV Award

The Venice TV Award has announced its winners for the 2023 competition, with the work of the BBC taking top honours. 

The BBC most regularly captured the attention of the judges, securing a total of three Gold Medals. AppleTV+ and Disney+ triumphed with two Gold Medals. NHK Japan earned two Gold Medals as well.

Two weeks after the Venice Film Festival, international jurors met in Venice for the annual Venice TV Award. The event, which is supported by the International Music + Media Centre [IMZ], the European Group of Television Advertising [egta], and the Association of Commercial TV [ACT], awards the year´s television masterpieces and underlines the continued – and growing – global appeal of TV.

The jury for the awards is made up of leading international TV experts who convene to honor the companies and individuals responsible for creating television masterpieces across 19 categories: TV Series, TV Movie, Performing Arts, Documentary, Light Entertainment, News, Program Promotion, Branded Entertainment, Sports, Children/Youth, Comedy, Reality TV, Technology/Innovation, Cross-Platform, Telenovela, Animation, Direction, Cinematography and New Talent.

In the Reality TV category, the BBC picked up a Gold Medal for The Traitors, a psychological adventure centred on betrayal and deceit, which was produced by Studio Lambert Productions. The BBC’s third gold came in Documentary, for Mariupol: The People's Story, a feature length film produced by Top Hat Productions which tells the story of the Ukrainian city through the eyes of those living there during the war.

Oussekine, a Disney+ France production, picked up the Gold Medal in TV Series. The four-episode show portrays a tragic, real-life event that saw 22-year-old Malik Oussekine assasinated by police in 1980s Paris. Disney+ also triumphed in the Animation category with Star Wars: Visions – I Am Your Mother, produced by Lucas Film and Aardman Productions.

AppleTV+ and NHK Japan each matched Disney+ by earning two Gold Medals of their own. Apple in the Comedy category, with Shrinking, featuring Jason Segel as a grieving therapist who begins to defy conventional norms, and in the Children/Youth category, for Jane, a series led by a young girl whose character is inspired by famed scientist Dr. Jane Goodall.

NHK Japan earned its two Gold Medals for The Moment: How Sports Changed The World, and Nature’s Hidden Miracles Episode 1; The Secret Life of Plants, which won in the Sport and Technology/Innovation categories respectively.

Elsewhere, one Gold Medal went to each of the following broadcasters: CBS, HBO, Globo Brazil, Mediacorp Singapore, TVPoland, Viacom18 India, ORF, TVI Portugal, and YLE Finland. Civica Scuola di Cinema Luchino Visconti in Italy completed the 19 winners, with The Ocean Around Milan; Conversations with Milo De Angelis, picking up a Gold Medal in the New Talent category.

“As a juror, I really enjoy seeing a fascinatingly broad range of filmmaking subjects and styles on displays,” said Alan Holland, BBC Studios‘ head of documentary in the UK.

“The Venice TV Award is important because it validates the commitment of the broadcasters to producing high-quality content,” said Grégoire Polad, Director General of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe.

Details of all winners and nominees can be found on the Venice TV Award website.