REVIEW OF PRIX JEUNESSE 2020
Separated by Crisis; Together in Commitment to Children
The PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2020 is over, but exciting memories stay in our minds. A review from a virtual adventure.
Since 1964 the PRIX JEUNESSE takes place at the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich. Every two years people from all over the world meet to exchange ideas, judge and discuss excellence in children’s television. Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, it was clear: This year is an exception with the chance to connect in a new way. Two months before PRIX JEUNESSE 2020 started the decision was taken to organize a virtual version of the children’s television festival. A total of 1.100 people from over 100 countries registered to take part in the festival program.
Streaming instead of Screening: The 98 finalist programmes from each category were available on a streaming platform. Participants could leave comments on the platform and exchange opinions with colleagues from around the world – an opportunity which the delegates made good use of. The comments were picked up by our moderators of the Q&A sessions.
Live-streamed Q&A-Sessions for more background insights: For each category a Q&A Session with the makers of the finalist programmes was arranged. This was an opportunity to get great insights into the background of the various quality productions that competed for the main prizes.
David Kleeman from the United States, Monica Maruri from Ecuador, Irene Wellershoff and Monika Gröller from Germany moderated the lively sessions. The recordings can be found here.
Added value through research input: Two info sessions on children, media and COVID-19 gave insights on how children worldwide are coping in times of the pandemic and how children’s media help them deal with this challenge.
More than 20 scientists from around the world were giving short presentations about their newest findings. Especially the worldwide comparison was highly informative regarding how children’s television could adapt to these insights. The Info Sessions can be found here.
A little glitz & glamour at the closing: The Award Ceremony was hosted by André Gatzke at the Bayerischer Rundfunk. During one and a half hours our well-known host and his new friends, a charming bunch of puppets led through the event. Even though some of the lucky winners had to be awake pretty early or stay up quite late, depending on their time zone, all of them accepted their awards happily. More than 2.500 people streamed the Award Ceremony. Find the recording of the show here.
The whole PRIX JEUNESSE Team is happy to see that the digital festival version was well accepted by the colleagues worldwide. We thank everyone who took part and look forward to PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2022!