Peter Helliar’s narrative comedy It’s a Date has won the award for best scripted format in an international competition at the Mipcom market in Cannes.
ABC Commercial represents the series internationally, which won one of the key categories in the International Format Awards staged by C21 Media and FRAPA, the Format Recognition and Protection Association.
The candidates for the awards were initially selected by C21Media.net’s community of 35,000 international TV executives. A panel of buyers then voted on 10 selected formats in seven genre categories.
Produced by Laura Waters, each episode of It’s a Date followed the people involved in two self-contained dates as they headed toward success or failure. The casts included Asher Keddie, Kate Ritchie, John Wood, Lisa McCune, Stephen Curry, Sibylla Budd, Shane Jacobson, Sophie Lowe, Nadine Garner, Pia Miranda and Helliar.
Waters tells IF a second series is in development and discussions are underway to sell the format internationally.
The winner of the award for best brand-driven format was judged to be Be the Boss from All3Media International. Best comedy format was Hotel Zimmerfrei from Nordic World. The factual entertainment winner was Gogglebox from All3Media International.
Pissed Off from ITV Studios took the award for multi-platform format and the award for competition reality format went to Mentor from Banijay International.