Untold Arctic Wars, produced by NTRNZ media, has won the main prize, Intermedia-Globe Gold, in the history documentary series category at the World Media Festival in Hamburg. Media giant Al Jazeera buys the Middle East rights to the series.
The 23rd World Media Festival – Television & Corporate Media Awards held in Hamburg, Germany, had 823 entries from 40 different countries. The festival’s prizes are among the highest regarded awards in visual productions.
Because of the pandemic, the event was not held physically this year, so the announcement came as a total surprise. This is a significant recognition to our whole team for their huge amount of work and professionalism.
Teemu Hostikka, Executive producer and screenwriter
The festival awards international top performers in television, corporate film, online and print productions. The awards are granted for know-how in modern media solutions and the winners are thought to represent the best in the industry.
The NTRNZ media Oulu team is mainly responsible for the development and production of NTRNZ’s international tv series. Photo: Henri Luoma
This award is the second time our series is recognised internationally, right after it was announced a finalist in the Berlin International TV Series Festival. This gives us faith in that our work is up to any international standards and that anything is possible if you really believe in it.
Teemu Hostikka, Executive producer and screenwriter
The international jury at World Media Festival includes top professionals in various fields around the world. Previous winners include Audi’s The Sensation of Sound commercial and White Wolves: Ghost of the Arctic, a nature documentary film on Amazon Prime.
Al Jazeera buys Untold Arctic Wars
Award-winning Al Jazeera Media Network has acquired Middle East rights to Untold Arctic Wars. The series will air on Al Jazeera’s History channel that covers the whole of Middle East.
This was an unexpected market area, mut apparently there’s demand for top quality, meaningful history content everywhere these times. This, in addition to the fact that IRENE’s Wars Untold, the title song for the series, has been playing on the radio in Tel Aviv, tells me that this content and our message resonates in many ways.
Teemu Hostikka
Earlier this year, the series was sold to the Walt Disney Company, whose National Geographic channel shows the series in the Benelux countries. Untold Arctic Wars will also be seen in all the Nordic countries, in the public broadcasters’ channels.
Untold Arctic Wars is an Yle Original series produced by NTRNZ media. The first season focuses on the events of World War II from an arctic perspective. The series has been sold to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, China, the National Geographic channel in the Benelux countries and Al Jazeera’s History Channel. It is distributed by TVF international. The series won the main prize in 2022 World Media Festival – Television & Corporate Media Awards and is finalist in the Berlin International TV Festival documentary series category. The production of the second season starts in the summer of 2022.
The 23rd World Media Festival was held in Hamburg, Germany. The festival awards international top performers in television, corporate films, online and print productions and is internationally known to recognise the highest production standards.
Al Jazeera Media Network is the parent company of an international Arabic news channel and other factual media operations. It has expanded into a network with several outlets, including the internet and specialty television channels in multiple languages. Al Jazeera reaches 220 million households in more than 100 countries, and its Youtube channel is the world’s most watched with 2,5 million monthly viewers.
