The 65th Monte-Carlo Television Festival opened on Thursday evening at the Grimaldi Forum under the patronage of Prince Albert II, with Dame Kristin Scott Thomas receiving the Crystal Nymph and the world premiere of The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 marking the start of a five-day celebration of international television.
The festival, which has been a fixture of Monaco’s cultural calendar since 1961, this year introduces a new digital competition recognising original content created for platforms such as YouTube, alongside its established fiction and feature reports categories.
Crystal Nymph for Kristin Scott Thomas
Dame Kristin Scott Thomas received the Crystal Nymph, the festival’s most prestigious individual honour, in recognition of her career as an actress, director and screenwriter across European and international productions. The award acknowledges a body of work that has spanned decades on both stage and screen.
Spanish actress Ester Expósito, best known internationally for the Netflix series Elite, was awarded the International Golden Nymph for Most Promising Talent. French television presenter Michel Drucker, whose career spans more than six decades, received the Honorary Nymph in recognition of his contribution to French-language television.
Walking Dead premiere in Monaco
The opening ceremony was followed by the international premiere of the first two episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3, produced by AMC Studios.
Actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan attended alongside showrunner Seth Hoffman. The series, set in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, follows characters Maggie and Negan and is due to air on AMC and AMC+ later this summer.
The juries
This year’s Golden Nymph juries bring together figures from across the global audiovisual industry. The fiction jury is chaired by British actress Lesley Manville CBE and includes Kevin McKidd, Greg Daniels, Hojin Kwon, Frédérique Bel and Yasmin Finney.
The feature reports and news jury is chaired by American filmmaker Joshua Seftel, while the newly created digital jury is led by Susanne Daniels, former Global Head of Original Content at YouTube.
Prince Albert II declared the festival open, saying: “65 years later, the ambition of the Festival remains more relevant than ever. It continues to promote an industry in perpetual transformation, while remaining faithful to its essence: celebrating stories and outstanding individuals capable of moving, questioning, enlightening and informing.”
The Golden Nymph Awards ceremony, at which competitive winners across fiction, documentary and digital categories will be announced, takes place on Tuesday 16th June at the Grimaldi Forum. Actor Kurt Russell will also receive a Crystal Nymph at the closing ceremony, in recognition of his career spanning more than five decades in film and television.
The Monte-Carlo Television Festival runs until 16th June at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco.
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All photos sourced from Monte-Carlo Television Festival, video by Monaco Life