Icelandic director Óskar Jónasson’s television series, The Press III (photo), is the first Icelandic TV production to be nominated for the Prix Europa, awarded annually since 1987 by the European Broadcasting Festival. This year’s ceremony will take place on October 26 at the Berlin City Hall.

The Press III will compete for Best European TV Fiction series or Serial of the Year 2013 with another 22 TV productions, including two from Sweden, one from Denmark and one from Norway. The Prix Europa – Europe’s largest festival for TV, radio and online media – received 664 submissions from 36 countries for the 2013 awards.

“The nomination shows that scripted material from Iceland can compete with TV series from all over the world and that the production value is up to par with our surrounding countries,” said Icelandic producer (of the series), Sagafilm ceo Kjartan Thór Thórdarson.

Scripted by Jónasson, Johann Aevar Grimsson, Margrét Örnolfsdóttir and Sigurjón Kjartansson, The Press III was aired by Iceland’s Channel 2 last autumn; it was nominated in 10 categories for the Edda, Iceland’s national film prize, and won for Best Scripted Series and Best Actress (Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir). Jónasson directed Reykjavik-Rotterdam [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] (2008), which was remade in Hollywood as Contraband starring Mark Wahlberg.

Swedish pubcaster SVT has two entries in the competition: Swedish author Jonas Gardell’s drama series Don’t Ever Wipe Tears without Gloves, which won The Swedish Crystal for Best TV Drama and the Audience Award at the Series Mania TV festival in Paris, and recently was sold to the UK’s BBC4; and Swedish scriptwriter Lars Lundström’s Real Humans. Danish commercial broadcaster TV2/Danmark is represented by Rita: Teamplayer, penned by ao Christian Torpe, while Norway’s contender is Lars Saabye Christensen’s The Half Brother.