With as much pomp and circumstance as befits a film festival whose Honorary President is His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, the red-carpet event at the Salle des Princes in the Grimaldi Forum to hand out the closing night Golden Nymph awards was packed with stars and surprises. Although there was a wide selection of winners from Spain, Germany, France, Syria and Faroe Islands, it was the U.K. BBC/HBO Max limited series The Tourist which was the big winner, taking home the top three fiction TV honors.

The glamorous 61st Monte-Carlo Television Festival was hosted by Miss France 2021, Amandine Petit, and magician, comedian and author Eric Antoine, who sprinkled magic tricks throughout the long ceremony, including a prank in which he took a U.S. $20 bill from actress Jane Seymour and downgraded it into a €5 note after ripping up the original.

The winners were selected from 21 nominated programs from 12 countries across the Fiction and News & Documentaries categories as well as the Prince Rainier III Special Prize, which was given to the French environmental documentary Les éclaireurs de l’eau (The Water Scouts).

The television industry was out in full force on the sunny French Riviera after a small event last year limited to the handful of European entrants who had not been discouraged by the threat of Covid. Spread over five days, the 2022 festival was attended by 170 VIPs, hosted 25 public events, including six world premieres and four French premieres and also generated an estimated 1,500 interviews carried out by the national and international press from 25 countries from Ireland to Estonia. Stars representing some of the entrants included Matthew Fox, Joanne Froggatt, Camryn Manheim, Taylor Kinney and Taylor Kitsch.

Many well-known former jury members were also back and took part in presenting awards at the black tie final ceremony that featured the juries of the two categories to reward the Best in Fiction series/Film and in Documentary.

That line-up included Eric Close (Without a Trace, Nashville), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills 90210), Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), Ricky Whittle (American Gods) and Emmy Award-winning screenwriter Michael Hirst (The Tudors, Vikings). 

“To celebrate the new decade, we decided to honor the former jury presidents from the last ten years,” festival CEO Laurent Puons explained. “They had the opportunity to meet with fans and speak with the press about their emblematic careers and also their future projects.”

The German film Martha Liebermann won awards for Best Film and Best Actress for Thekla Carola Weid as the German-Jewish woman in Nazi Berlin standing up for her values while risking her life. The Faroese series Trom, received the Best Actor award for Ulrich Thomssen and the Special Jury Prize.

But it was the U.K. limited series The Tourist – written by English brothers Harry and Jack Williams and shot in the Australian outback with Irish actor Jamie Dornan and Australian actress Danielle Macdonald – that took home Best Series, Best Creation and the newly introduced BetaSeries Public Prize. The quirky hit thriller beat out competing shows for top prizes including Paramount+ Godfather series The Offer, MGM series Last Light, starring Matthew Fox and Joanne Froggatt, and Amazon Prime thriller The Terminal List, starring Chris Pratt.

Present to accept the awards were co-writer Harry Williams, Australian star Danielle Macdonald and British co-star Catriona Renton. “Sorry you must be sick of us by now,” Renton said with a grin when the trio returned to the stage for the third time.

The best news program award went to the U.K.’s Navalny – The Man Putin Couldn’t Kill, and best documentary went to Spain’s Erasmus in Gaza, while the French/Syrian co-production Syrie, Des Femmes Dans La Guerre (Syria, Intimate Stories of an Endless War) was awarded the jury Special Prize in the News and Documentaries section.

Laurent Puons added, “As our Festival is now the leading one of its kind in Europe so our competition continues to grow in stature. This year the level of the Official Selection was exceptionally high with numerous worldwide premieres. I know that both sets of juries found it really challenging to make their final selections.”

H.S.H. Prince Albert II, the son of former movie star Princess Grace (who died in a car accident in September, 1982), was arguably the biggest celebrity of the occasion and was seen at one point posing for a selfie with Jane Seymour. He released a statement, commenting, “I would like to thank the jury members, the talented actors, creatives, and executives from around the world who have contributed to the success of this 61st edition of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. Excellence has defined the quality and the creativity of the global content showcased within the competition and sincere congratulations are sent to the winners of the Golden Nymph Awards and Special Prizes as the Official Selection was full of exceptional nominees.”

The Golden Nymph statuette is a replica of the Nymph Salmacis, created by the Monégasque artist François-Joseph Bosio, who was chief court sculptor to Louis XVIII. The original can still be seen at the Louvre in Paris.