Marco Bellocchio, Sally Wainwright Win at Italian Global Series Fest

In honors, Richard Gadd (“Half Man”) and Natasha Lyonne (“Poker Face,” “Russian Doll”) were among the big winners at this year’s Italian Global Series Festival, which wrapped July 11. The two received the Breakthrough Storyteller Award and the Maximo Excellence Award respectively, which they had picked up in person earlier last week at awards ceremonies held in Rimini Italy’s ornate Teatro Galli.

Announced Saturday the Italian Global Series prizewinners for TV shows, Marco Bellocchio’s HBO Venice-showcased “Portobello” swept three top awards, and Sally Wainwright a double for “Riot Women.”

The whole point of the festival however is to shine a larger international light on series and creators who are not so well known. Here, Italy pulled its weight with prizes to “La legge di Lidia Poët” and “I casi di Teresa Battaglia – Figlia della cenere.” 

Plaudits also shone more light on Irish-U.K. series “Leonard and Hungry Paul,” the French series “Laura’s Treatment” and Chilean soccer fandom series “Raza Brava.” 

Further awards went to Sweden’s “Burden of Justice,” and German show “The Flaws,” as well as “Secret Service,” for which British actor Rafe Spall scopped best drama-actor. 

The festival’s opening ceremony also saw its share of trophies, led by “Lost” co-showrunner Carlton Cuse, who picked up a festival Maximo Excellence Award. The festival honored Cuse for “changing the television landscape” when “Lost” debuted, and the “world stopped in front of the screen.” 

With Anson Mount to the fore, the cast and creatives across generations of “Star Trek” also received Maximo Celebration Prizes. 

‘Star Trek’ at 60

All the gold aside, the 60th anniversary celebration of “Star Trek” marked one of the highpoint of the Italian Global Series Festival, climaxing with a preview screening of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season 4. 

There were also guests from across the creative history of “Star Trek,” including, Nicholas Meyer, director of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” Meyer spoke to Variety of its writing process and how he as a “Star Trek· agnostic came around thanks to the encouragement of producer Harve Bennett. “I had seen ‘Star Trek’ on TV, and I didn’t get it at all,” Meyer said. ”I missed everything that was interesting about the show, the idea that people of different races and genders and cultures could come together to do something good – that blew right by me.” 

The cast also described the enduring qualities of the series and how it sought the spirit of creator Gene Roddenberry. Part of this was from its flexibility with genre, as exemplified by “Strange New Worlds” and its own ability to shapeshift between musical or something more akin to a Western in moments.  

“We wanted to get back to the big idea that week the planet of the week, the ship is the star, and and at the same time use our platform to prove that ‘Star Trek’ can be more, really test the form,” said Anson Mount, who plays series lead Captain Pike. “I think we’ve tried to embrace what the original series did, which is Mission of the Week, along with the serialized storylines, throughlines for the characters,” added Rebecca Romijn, who plays Una Chin-Riley (aka Number One). “But there was a sexiness that the original series had, that I think we’ve also tried to embrace. The Enterprise is kind of a groovy, sexy ship, you know!” 

Celia Rose Gooding, who plays Nyota Uhura, another character from the original series, also noted that the new series’s strength lies in how it leaves room for inward exploration of these familiar characters. 

“But there is something I think very interesting about the future of ‘Trek’ being a little more inward, and the genesis of ‘Trek’ being much more outwardly exploratory. I think ‘Strange New Worlds’ has a really wonderful way of finding us right in the middle, where we see how our characters’ inner worlds color their style of exploration.”

Cinema/TV Overlap

The changing nature of television was, of course, a frequent point of discussion throughout the week, especially in terms of its relationship with and comparison to the medium of cinema.  

One early IGS Festival highlight of the festival was a conversation primarily about “Lost” between co-showrunner Carton Cuse and John Ridley (“12 Years a Slave,” “Shirley”). The two discussed the influences of cinema on the visual language of “Lost” which helped it stand out at the time of its release. “It was sort of cinema of the subconscious,” Cuse said, speaking of the work of director Frederico Fellini as well as Michelangelo Antonioni. “It was about mood and mystery and imagery and dreams, and it was ambiguous.” Cuse said that he watched these works at a formative time and that “Lost” was a perfect chance to bring those influences into a TV show. “‘Lost’ was a show that was really driven by mystery,” Cuse continued. Network television was very literal – you would always get notes like ‘explain it more, make it clearer, make the subtext text,’ and it was so deeply annoying.” 

Another conversation considering the nuances between the mediums followed immediately after, with a conversation with actor Bertie Carvel, known for his recent performance as Baelor Targaryan in “Game of Thrones” spinoff “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.”  

A TV Industry in Crisis 

The discussion of blurring lines in the television industry wasn’t all positive. A panel between David W. Zucker, chief creative officer of Scott Free and Steve Stark, chairman and executive producer at Toluca Pictures, looked at the industry’s existential problems. 

The rise of streamers proved one insistent focus. Zucker said that streamers “fundamentally changed the way content was produced and the way content related to the viewer.” He went on to note that television used to be about people developing long-term relationships with characters. Now streaming services are “interested in giving you something that will make you pay again next month,” he explained, adding that this changes both the nature of how the audience views television as well as the very nature of the television which they’ll be viewing.   

Stark noted that an over-reliance on audience data is steering how television is optioned.  

Global Series’ Popularity Hike

 One of the most popular panels took place on July 5 at the Rimini portion of the festival led by on and off-screen couple Özge Gürel (“Wolf,” “Mr. Wrong”) and Serkan Çayoğlu (“Wolf,” “Cherry Season”). It was a convincing example of the panel’s very subject: the surprise success of Turkish dizi, particularly with international audiences in Italy and beyond. Gürel and Çayoğlu both spoke about how they saw the emotion of each show as something which easily translated to new audiences, while speaking about Turkey’s screen industries.  

The Italian Global Series’ focus on internationality links back to Zucker and Stark’s panel, with something which both producers highlighted as one of the positives of the modern status quo of television: a new immediacy to connecting with audiences from around the world thanks to the international reach of streamers (and perhaps just the internet itself, on a simpler level). That interconnectivity, whether through fan communities online or through streamers themselves reaching out to producers and studios from around the world, felt like an ambient influence on the 2026 Italian Global Series festival as a whole. 

A list of some of this year’s winners can be found below.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION DRAMA CATEGORY 

Best Series

“Burden of Justice” 

Best Director

Lisa Linnertorp for “Burden of Justice” 

Best Lead Actress 

Elena Sofia Ricci for “I casi di Teresa Battaglia – Figlia della cenere”

Best Lead Actor 

Rafe Spall for “Secret Service”

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION – COMEDY 

Best Series

“The Flaws” 

Best Creator / Director 

Sally Wainwright for  “Riot Women”

Best Lead Actress 

Joanna Scanlan for “Riot Women”

Best Lead Actor 

Alex Lawther, “Leonard and Hungry Paul”

Special Jury Prize 

“Leonard and Hungry Paul”

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION – LIMITED SERIES 

Best Series

“Laura’s Treatment”

Best Director 

Hernán Caffiero, “Raza Brava”

Best Lead Actress

Valérie Bonneton, “Laura’s Treatment”

Best Lead Actor 

Gabriel Muñoz, “Raza Brava” 

Maximino Award

“Raza Brava”

EDITA ITALIAN FICTION COMPETITION

Best Drama Series

“Guerrieri – La regola dell’equilibrio”

Best Comedy Series

 “Pesci piccoli” – Season 2 

Best Miniseries

 “Portobello” 

Best TV Movie

“Franco Battiato. The Long Journey” 

BEST DIRECTOR 

Best Directing, Drama

Giuseppe Mezzapesa, Jacopo Bonvicini, Letizia Lamartire (“La Legge di Lidia Poët” – Season 3) 

Best Directing, Comedy

Francesco Ebbasta, Alessandro Grespan, Danilo Carlani, Alessio Dogana(“Pesci piccoli” – Season 2)

Best Director, Miniseries

Marco Bellocchio( “Portobello”)

Best Director, TV Movie

Stefano Lodovichi (“Il falsario”)

BEST ACTRESS AND BEST ACTOR 

Best Actress in a Drama 

Marina Occhionero (“Avvocato Ligas”)

Best Actress in a Comedy

Sara Drago (“Call My Agent – Italy” – Season 3) 

Best Actress in a Miniseries 

Carolina Crescentini (“Mrs. Playmen”) 

Best Actress in a TV Movie 

Giulia Michelini (“Il falsario”) 

Best Actor in a Drama

Lino Guanciale (“Il commissario Ricciardi” – Season 3)

Best Comedy Actor

Francesco Russo(“Call My Agent – Italy” – Season 3)

Best Actor in a Miniseries

Valentino Mannias (“Il mostro”) 

Best Actor in a TV Movie

Dario Aita (“Franco Battiato. Il lungo viaggio”) 

BEST SCREENPLAY 

Best Drama Screenplay 

Gianrico Carofiglio, Doriana Leondeff, Antonio Leotti, Oliviero Del Papa (“Guerrieri – La regola dell’equilibrio”) 

Best Comedy Screenplay 

Francesco Apolloni, Giovanni Cardillo, Giovanni Tancredi Brusaporci, Giulio Manfredonia, Valentina Capecci (“L’appartamento – Sold Out”)

 Best Miniseries Screenplay 

Jordana Mari, Giuseppe Fiore, Marco Bellocchio, Stefano Bises (“Portobello”) 

Best TV Movie Screenplay 

Sandro Petraglia, in collaboration with Lorenzo Bagnatori and Eleonora Bordi (“Zvanì – The Family Tale of  Giovanni Pascoli”)