U.K. and U.S. Shows Dominate 2020 Rockie Awards Nominations

The BBC is leading nominations for the 2020 Rockie Awards, a juried competition organized by Canada’s Banff World Media Festival to celebrate achievement in television and digital media from around the world.

The BBC was nominated for 27 Rockie Awards, followed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with 13 noms, Sky with eight noms, National Geographic with six noms, HBO with five noms, as well as Arte France and Finland’s YLE with four nominations each. U.K. and U.S. shows are leading the pack with 44 and 43 nominations, respectively.

The comedy series lineup includes BBC’s “Fleabag,” “Motherland,” “This Time With Alan Partridge,” as well as A24’s Ramy and Channel Four’s “This Way Up.” The non-English language comedy shows in the running include Finland’s “Almost True,” TVA’s “Boomerang” and Radio-Canada’s “Freefall,” Arte France’s “Mytho,” and Deutschland’s “Other Parents.”

Drama series nominated include Corus Entertainment’s “Departure,” BBC/HBO’s “Gentleman Jack,” Cineflix Studios’s “Pure,” BBC’s “The Capture” and ABC’s “Total Control.” Meanwhile, the non-English shows nommed are Sky Italia’s “1994,” Japan’s “Behind the Door,” BBC Tw’s “Girl/Haji,” the Chilean/Finnish series “Invisible Heroes” and HBO Latin America’s “Joint Venture.” The limited series roster comprises of HBO’s “Chernobyl,” BBC’s “Dublin Murders,” Belgium’s “Studio Tarara,” Showtime’”The Loudest Voice” and the BBC’s “Years and Years.”

Although this year’s Banff World Media Festival was cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, the Rockie Awards ceremony will be streamed on June 15.

“We will also take this opportunity to recognize the challenges that are being experienced within our sector and the role that our industry continues to play by uniting global audiences, informing, entertaining and giving comfort during extraordinarily difficult times,” said Jenn Kuzmyk, the executive director of the Banff World Media Festival.

This year’s Grand Jury comprises of 150 international industry professionals, including Kathleen Finch, chief lifestyle brands officer at Discovery, Inc., Lisa Godfrey, VP of original content at Corus Entertainment Inc., Devin Griffin, general manager at BET+, Paul Mortimer, head of digital channels and acquisitions at ITV, Jill Offman, managing director at Viacom International Studios UK and EVP at Comedy Central and Paramount Network International, and Linda Simensky, head of PBS KIDS Content at PBS KIDS.