One of the innovations at this year's Prix Italia was that jurors were not obliged to watch programmes in their entirety: films which by common assent had failed to impress in the first third of their running time were summarily dismissed. All in the interests of common sense and juror sanity in a packed programme, though the decision aroused controversy - as did the separation of "cultural" and "current affairs" documentaries in the TV sector.
Otherwise, things remained the same - in particular the thoroughness of the Prix Italia publicity machine: this year, delegates were even given a full printed list of the background music to be played at the conference centre. Surreally appended to a three-page political history of the world from 1948 to 1998, this let us know that we would be enjoying such period delights as "A Couple of Swells (J. Garland, F. Astaire)", "Be A Clown (G. Kelly)", a "medley from the film score of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", and Vecchia Roma sung by Claudio Villa.
Perhaps this was all meant to engender a jazzy upbeat mood in the serene surroundings of La Cittadella, the lay monastery complex in Assisi where this year's television and radio festival was held. If so, it was only moderately successful. The Prix Italia, celebrating its 50th year, remains one of the most prestigious of all such festivals, and its annual cash prizes (currently about £6,500 each) are highly coveted, but support "on the ground" was particularly lacking this year.
To start with, there was a notable lack of key broadcasting personnel, particularly from Britain, though both BBC and ITV programmes have regularly succeeded at the festival over the years.
A few years ago, it was not uncommon to meet well-known drama bosses, writers, music and documentary supremos, various cultural commisars and much of the top international broadcasting brass at the lunch tables or in the viewing rooms, even in the first days of the festival.
In Assisi, however, such personalities were very thin on the ground. Moreover, many delegates seemed more intent on enjoying the medieval delights of Assisi than sitting in darkened rooms to view and listen to programmes made by their international counterparts. Despite the heavy rain, many viewing rooms at La Cittadella were almost deserted for the first three days, which must have been demoralising for those whose programmes were being aired. They could of course console themselves with the knowledge that the various juries were dutifully present in their private rooms.
As for the programmes, in documentaries there was the usual jolly theme mix of depression, the carnage of war, suicide, kidnapping, homelessness and prison life, not to mention "the authentic folk customs of the cult of the dead treated in free artistic transposition" (Serbia).
The so-called performing arts section - perhaps the strongest this year, particularly in radio, came up with goodies like Norway's Alfa & Romeo, "the world's first road-opera" (which ran away, or drove away, with the prize in its section), and the American offering of "an open-ended sound composition that centres around the theme of turbulence". RTE producer Anne Makower was jury president for the Performing Arts/Television section, and in her summary speech she pointed out that many of the 23 programmes entered could equally well have been in the fiction or documentary category. Her jury watched 12 programmes in their entirety, gave special mention to two and chose as winner the Finnish entry, The Man Who Never Was. This high-tech digital production "televisualised" the work of the Portugese writer Fernando Pessoa by means of computer images and dance.
Makower remarked humorously that perhaps her worst moment as president of the jury was when, after one-third of this superb programme, she asked (as was her duty) if anyone wanted to stop - "and I was nearly lynched".
TV Fiction offered a good deal of comedy - some of it unintentional - whodunits, and a bloody and shocking drama from Russia purporting to tell the true story of the war in Chechenya. This latter section also included the only Irish television entry, RTE's Hell for Leather, a bittersweet piece by Roddy Doyle about two women who meet after the funeral of a priest whom they have been sharing as a lover. The prize however went to Channel 4's Granton Star Cause, adapted from Irvine Welsh's The Acid House. This simple everyday tale involved a Scottish footballer who is kicked off his team, suffers various other misfortunes, meets God in a pub, is turned into a fly, and takes revenge on his persecutors.
In TV fiction serials, the winner was the Swedish entry, Hammarkullen, a busy soap opera about life on a racially mixed immigrant housing estate: "There is a rumbling beneath the surface" as writer Peter Birro explained somewhat unnecessarily - "Welcome to the new Sweden!". Une Fille Contre La Mafia, FR3 France's disturbing story of a young Sicilian girl's ill-fated attempts to avenge the Mafia murders of her father and brother, picked up the award for cultural documentaries. And a Japanese production, Why Did They Kill Their Neighbours?, a study of media manipulation in the Rwandan civil war, triumphed in current affairs documentaries.
In radio, the sole Irish entry was Christopher Fitz-Simon's sensitive drama, A Snowman in July, about a teacher whose innocent relationship with a former pupil goes awry. Produced and directed by Daniel Reardon, this was extremely well received, winning a special mention from the jury. The calibre of the opposition became apparent with the winning entry, Australia's Rita's Lullaby, a superbly-produced tri-lingual play (English and two Philippine dialects) about a teenage Philippine prostitute in Australia.
