The Grand Prize of the Séries Mania festival in Lille was awarded on Friday to the series Rematch d’Arte produced by Yan England, on the confrontation between the world chess champion Garry Kasparov and the computer Deep Blue, in 1997.
The jury of the international competition, chaired by the Franco-American screenwriter Zal Batmanglij (The O.A.), chose this psychological thriller about this historic match, which at the time had shone the spotlight on the dizzying potential of artificial intelligence.
The series was directed by Quebecer Yan England, with Christian Cooke in the title role. The director said, when receiving his prize at the closing ceremony in Lille, that Deep Blue’s victory had been “a turning point in the history of humanity”.
The award for best actress went to the already multi-awarded Annette Bening, for the American-Australian series Apples Never Falladapted from a novel by Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies).
Palestinian Kamel el-Basha won the best actor award for his role in the Australian series House of Godsabout an imam’s family torn between tradition and modernity, loyalty and individuality.
The Norwegian series Dates in Real Life was crowned best series by the international Panorama jury, chaired by the American writer Douglas Kennedy.
In the French competition, it is another series produced for Arte, Machine, which was recognized by a jury from the international press. JoeyStarr plays one of the key roles, that of a worker melted by Karl Marx.
“The initial pitch when I was told about this series was: kung fu, trade unionism, Marxism, cycling… Who would have thought it? “, he said on stage.
Still in this category, the best actress prize was awarded to Tiphaine Daviot in Murder Club (M6), and that of best actor to Jérémie Gillet in A dangerous friendship (France 2).
Finally, the Lille public rewarded Soviet Jeansa series from Latvia in which a Soviet rock fan, at the end of the 70s, sets up a clandestine jeans manufacturing network in a psychiatric hospital.
The ceremony was briefly disrupted by the burst of environmental activists who crossed the stage with a smoke bomb, denouncing intensive agriculture.
According to an initial assessment, the Lille festival welcomed 98,000 participants and 4,200 professionals during this 2024 edition, “record attendance” according to the organizers.