10 May 2017

Two S4C productions have scooped Silver World Medals in the prestigious 2017 New York Festivals International TV & Film Awards.

The evocative film Yr Ymadawiad - The Passing and the powerful documentary Philip Jones Griffiths: Ffotograffydd Rhyfel Fietnam about the world-famous Welsh photographer impressed an international jury panel.

A third S4C production Aberfan: Cantata Memoria, produced by Hefin Owen of Rondo Media, reached the shortlist and received a finalist certificate. This premier broadcast of composer Karl Jenkins’ and writer Mererid Hopwood’s tribute to the people of a disaster stricken South Wales mining community was one of the milestones of S4C’s 2016 schedule.

S4C Creative Content Director, Amanda Rees said; “With entries from 40 countries, this year’s New York Festivals Awards presented a strong competition, but these productions prove that Wales and S4C can make world-class programmes in a wide variety of genres. We are proud that we have commissioned these productions and congratulate all the production companies on their success.”

The powerful drama Yr Ymadawiad - The Passing was produced by Severn Screen in collaboration with Boom Pictures and Film Cymru Wales for S4C and will be broadcast in the near future on the channel.

It was produced by Kate Crowther and Ed Talfan who also wrote the screenplay and directed by Gareth Bryn. It was filmed on location in Llanddeusant and Brianne Lake, Carmarthenshire. Ed Talfan is one of the co-creators of the multi-award-winning detective series Y Gwyll/Hinterland.

The film stars Mark Lewis Jones as the loner Stanley and Annes Elwy and Dyfan Dwyfor as the lovers. When young couple on-the-run, Sara and Iwan crash their car into a stream near a remote farmhouse they’re rescued by local man Stanley. But disrupting Stanley’s solitary life leads to unexpected consequences for all three of them.

The beautifully shot documentary Philip Jones Griffiths: Ffotograffydd Rhyfel Fietnam gives a fascinating insight into the life and legacy of the photographer from Rhuddlan, North Wales, who was a true humanitarian and whose pictures are classics of photojournalism.

Presented by BBC news broadcaster Wyre Davies and produced by Caryl Ebenezer and Luned Phillips, the programme was a co–production between Welsh based Rondo Media, and South Korean production company, JTV, Jeonju Television. The documentary features interviews with some of those closest to him; family and friends and colleagues including John Pilger, Don McCullin and Professor Noam Chomsky.

Recently the documentary won a prestigious award in Los Angeles, the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Award for the best foreign language documentary.