DR’s The Orchestra dominates Aarhus Series Awards with four wins

The tragi-comedy The Orchestra (Orkestret) created and directed by Mikkel Munch-Fals turned four of its six nominated into awards, with Frederik Cilius Jørgensen picking up the inaugural acting award.

SAM Productions’ series which follows the rules, hierarchies and power struggles behind the scenes at the Copenhagen Symphony Orchestra aired earlier this year on DR and was recently picked up for world sales by Studiocanal.

SAM Productions also scooped Best Script for Adam Price’s Borgen-Power & Glory (Borgen-Riget, Magten og Æren) commissioned by DR with Netflix.

Profile Pictures’ Kamikaze commissioned by HBO Max came home with two statuettes for Best Mini-series and Best Rising Talent for Marie Reuther, making it the second major accolade for the 26-year old actress after her 2021 Series Mania award.

The prize for Best Series went to Jonas Risvig’s youth drama Boys (Drenge), one of the hottest Danish shows of the year, based on Risvig’s own experience of growing up in a small Danish town. The 8x24’ series starring Sylvester Byder and Dar Salim was produced by REinvent Studios for Viaplay, with REinvent handling sales.

The award for Best Nordic Series was handed out to NRK’s Countrymen (Jordbrukerne), earlier winner of an Ensemble Cast and High School Award-Best Series at Canneseries 2021. The show was co-created by Ize Aliu and Anne Bjørnstad for Rubicon. Banijay handles sales.

Elsewhere, TV2 Denmark’s all-time favourite Seaside Hotel (Badehotellet) won the Best Returning Series award, while Nimbus Film’s Where Were You? (Håber du kom godt hjem) ordered by Viaplay scooped Best Crime.

Felicia Elisabeth Jackson, director of THIS and the Aarhus Series Festival said: "It has been a pleasure to once again pay tribute to the series format with this year's Series Awards. We very much want to highlight the many talented pioneers we are lucky enough to have within the series world, both in Denmark and the rest of the Nordics, and it must be said that we have done that tonight."

The Series Awards ceremony held at Filmbyen Aarhus was hosted by acting brothers Andreas and Sebastien Jessen.