Seriencamp Audience Award Goes To ‘Happiness’ As Cologne Fest Wraps

Arte’s Franco-Iranian web series Happiness has won the audience award at Seriencamp, while the Cologne fest has reported record attendance.

Happiness, which featured as a Deadline Global Breakout earlier this month and launches its second season in two weeks, centers on an Iranian student who moves to Paris and stars Ghazal Shojaei. It received a five-minute standing ovation in Cologne earlier this week. Our Global Breakout called the show from Pouria Takavar a “reminder that teenhood is universal.”

Happiness beat off competition from second place The Flaws, an absurdist comedy for ZDF that won the official competition at the same fest. In third was Club Der Roten Bänder – Die Neue Generation.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 drama Trespasses starring Gillian Anderson took home the critics’ choice award. The Louise Kennedy adaptation aired earlier this year.

The €50,000 ($57,800) European Series Development Award went to political thriller Radio Free Europe.

Seriencamp had record attendance this year, the fest announced, with around 1,000 accredited attendees and 4,000 festival guests.

Speakers included Deadline’s German TV Disruptor award winner Anke Greifeneder, Halo showrunner Steven Kane and Skins co-creator Bryan Elsley. Shows premiering included Helena Zengel-starrer Westend Girl and ZDF’s All Heroes Are Bastards.

Seriencamp co-MD Malko Solf said: “We are thrilled to see awards go to series like The Flaws, which take stylistic risks, or Happiness, which is incredibly attuned to current events. Of course, we also want to thank the Cologne audience, who turned out in large numbers over the three days of the festival, filled the theaters, and showed so much enthusiasm. That’s why we’re looking forward all the more to next year with the promise of making Seriencamp 2027 even bigger and better.”

Next year’s fest takes place June 8 to 10.