Diversify TV Excellence Awards Presented in Cannes

The winners for the inaugural edition of the Diversify TV Excellence Awards have been announced, recognizing diversity, equality and inclusion across international programming.

The awards ceremony took place last night at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes. Model Zion Moreno, who is transgender and features in the upcoming reality series SLAY: The Series, presented. Special guests also included A+E Networks’ president of international and digital, Sean Cohan, and Ebonylife TV’s CEO, Mo Abudu.

Diversify TV’s Excellence Award for representation of race and ethnicity was presented to Damilola, Our Loved Boy in the scripted category. The winner for non-scripted was Home Sweet Home.

Diversify TV’s Excellence Award for representation of LBGTQ went to Man in an Orange Shirt for scripted and Becoming He Or She for non-scripted.

For representation of disability, the scripted program winner was Team Chocolat, while Employable Me was recognized in the non-scripted arena.

The awards were created by Diversify TV, an industry collective co-founded by Scorpion TV’s managing director, David Cornwall; the senior VP of format production at all3media international, Nick Smith; Little Black Book’s CEO, Bunmi Akintonwa; and Liliane Da Cruz, key account manager at Reed MIDEM. They were supported by A+E Networks, Ebonylife, Viacom International Media Networks and Franklin Rae.

Smith commented: “We are incredibly proud of how the inaugural Diversify TV Excellence Awards turned out. We were overwhelmed with the response from the international television community and received so many amazing entries from over 20 territories. Congratulations to not only the winners, but also everyone who entered. Also, a huge thank you to our amazing sponsors and partners, and the incredible organizations Minority Rights Group International, GADIM, Scope and Gay Star News. We are already excited for next year and preparations have commenced.”