The Prix Genève-Europe for the Best Fiction Script by a Newcomer is awarded every year to the best TV fiction written by a new talent and produced or commissioned by a national broadcaster. This year, the prize went to Janko Haschemian for his script Vacation from Life and was presented during the Prix Europa Award Ceremony in Berlin on Saturday 21 October by Bjørn Erichsen, Director of Eurovision TV.

Vacation from Life is the story of a man going through a mid-life crisis, and the jury considered that the scriptwriter had retold this well-known story in a poetic and humorous way, demonstrating a mature and ironic vision of the world. 

The TV fiction, directed by Neele Leana Vollmar and produced by the Jochen Laube production company in collaboration with EBU member ZDF, was among the 15 entries submitted to an international jury of 5 fiction professionals that met in Berlin during the prestigious Prix Europa competition which brings together the best European television, radio and Internet productions.

The Prix Europa trophy and this year's winner Janko Haschemian (third from left), Bjorn Erichsen, 
ceremony moderator Sabrina Staubitz and other Prix Europa winners

About the Prix Genève-Europe

The PGE awards were created by the European Alliance for Television and Culture (EATC), an alliance made up of EBU members (ARD, FT2, NPB, SSR-IdéeSuisse, TVE, YLE, ZDF), the EBU and the City and Canton of Geneva. Set up in 1987 under the auspices of the EBU, whose membership includes every national public service broadcaster in Europe, the prizes aim to encourage new authors to work in television. This is the second year that the Prix Genève-Europe is organised in collaboration with the Prix Europa. The €6000 prize goes to the scriptwriter of a telemovie that has been produced over the last year, and the jury members judge the script by screening the film. 

This year, besides entries from most of the EATC members, films were submitted by ARTE (France), BBC (UK), ORF (Austria), SVT (Sweden) and SK/SR (Slovakia).

Every year, each EATC member can also choose a promising new scriptwriter who has written a fiction synopsis of any genre to receive a Writing Bursary consisting of CHF 10’000 and two scriptwriting workshops. Three additional bursaries are also available for candidates proposed by other national broadcasters from Europe.

This year nine new scriptwriters from France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Rumania, Spain and Switzerland, met in Berlin for their first session, led by Guy Meredith and Roger Gregory, experienced script editors and scriptwriting tutors. They were joined by the winner of last year’s PGE prize, Robert Thalheim, who is currently finishing his second film. The second workshop will take place in Geneva in December.

Further information and photos:
Lynne Polak, Eurovision TV, polak@ebu.ch
For information about joining the EATC: 
Fabienne Kohn, Eurovision TV kohn@ebu.ch

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