The BANFF World Media Festival announced the nominees for their annual awards ceremony (The Rockies) honoring the best in international television and digital media. And the Soap Opera and Telenovelas category produced a very interesting list of nominees.
Included are legendary soap operas Coronation Street from ITV in the UK and Days of our Lives from NBC in the US. Both long running series celebrated their anniversary years. Corrie staged a big budget, live stunt to mark their anniversary. While over in Salem, Days of our Lives bid an emotional, fond farewell to the series’ matriarch and arguably one of the matriarchs of American Daytime, Frances Reid as Alice Horton.
Also included are the record setters. KBS drama Bread, Love and Dreams (Baker King, Kim Tak Goo) from South Korea captured the hearts of the country making it one of the most watched Korean series of all time and solidified the elusive status of being a “national drama.” Meanwhile across the Pacific in the US, Univision’s first locally produced telenovela Eva Luna broke ratings records while Telemundo’s own The Queen of the South/La Reina del Sur has boosted the network’s ratings and profile as well.
Then there’s Mara Clara from ABS-CBN in the Philippines. Quite a baffling choice, especially considering two other Filipino productions Magkaribal and Dahil May Isang Ikaw were just honored at the New York Festivals with the latter receiving International Emmy nominations last year.
Either the BANFF Advisory Boards only watched a sample of the first month or two of Mara Clara or they love to get tortured with lazy writing and TV torture porn.
Anyway, best of luck to the nominees.
Most of them.