China wins Grand Prix at Seoul drama fest

Chinese TV series "Memoirs in China" took the Grand Prix award at a drama festival held in Seoul last week, triumphing over nearly 170 dramas in competition.

"Memoirs", a period drama which tells the stories of two rich families during the Qing Dynasty, competed against 169 dramas from 39 countries around the world at the Seoul International Drama Awards (SDA) in its fourth year.

"I thank everyone who worked hard to make this drama. The freedom shown in the drama is what will lead history," director Zhang Li said at a grand awarding ceremony held as the festival wrapped up its ten-day run on Friday.

The jury's special prizes went to Taiwan's "Taipei 24" and China's "Live a Luxury and Dissipation Life" while Canada's "The Englishman's Boy", Norway's "Maria" and Korea's "The Slingshot" took the awards for Best single drama, mini-series and series drama, respectively.

Duane Clark received the Best Director award for "XIII: The Conspiracy" and Marc Didden of Belgium's "The Emperor of Taste" took home the award for Best Writer.

Japanese actor Akira Kume from "The Shopping Trip" and Norwegian actress Charlotte Frogner from "Maria" won the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress.

Separately, in the People's Choice categories, Korean actress Moon Geun-young of "The Painter of Wind" received the award for top actress in a joint online poll carried out by the SDA and Yahoo! Korea.

Korean actor Kim Hyun-joong, who appeared in hit drama "Boys Over Flowers" was named the top actor in the poll but was unable to attend the ceremony as he was in recovery after being infected with the new H1N1 influenza virus.

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Doctor Who Season 4" were the top foreign drama picks, according to the vote.

Reporter : Lim Hye-seon lhsro@asiae.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr