"Vicente Ferrer" Wins the Magnolia Award at the 21st Television Festival in Shanghai

• This TV movie, co-produced by TVE and starring Imanol Arias and Aida Folch, competed against productions from Europe, Japan and Israel
• Directed by Agustin Crespi, the movie was based on a script by David Planell, Patrick Buckley and Ignacio del Moral

The TV movie, "Vicente Ferrer", which was broadcast by Televisión Española last January and stars Imanol Arias and Aida Folch, has received the Magnolia Award for Best TV Movie or Miniseries Script at the Twenty-First Television Festival in Shanghai. This Spanish production competed in the same category as other international productions such as "Generation War" from Germany's ZDF, and "Burton & Taylor" from the BBC.

The Award was collected in China by the director of the TV movie, Agustin Crespi, acknowledging the excellent work of the script-writing team made up of David Planell, Patrick Buckley and Ignacio del Moral.

Produced by TVE and Grupo Ganga, featuring the participation of TV3 and Visiona tv, "Vicente Ferrer" tells the story of the last 30 years in the life of the Spanish aid-worker in India, focusing on his struggle to help the underprivileged. The shooting, which enjoyed the collaboration of the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, took place over a period of five weeks at different locations throughout India, including Anantapur and the Ramoji Studios, the largest studios in the world. The movie was shown for the first time on TVE last January 9th and attracted almost 3 million viewers (2,896,000) and an audience share of 15.4%.

The Magnolia Awards presented at the International Television Festival in Shanghai recognize the Best TV Movie or Miniseries, Best Animation and Best Documentary, amongst other categories. "Vicente Ferrer" won this important form of recognition in a category in which it competed against titles such as "A Mother's Last Goodbye" (Japan); "Burton & Taylor" (United Kingdom); "Generation War" (Germany); "Inseparable" (Ukraine); "The Last Cyclist" (Czech Republic); "Live is Life - No Time to Lose" (Austria); "Old Times" (Italy); "The Red Hood Set Up" (Israel); and "Top of the Lake" (United Kingdom).

With this award, "Vicente Ferrer" has notched up another entry on its list of victories, which includes a "Gold Medal" in the TV Movie Category at the New York International Festival, a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries at the Hamburg Festival, the Best Historical Drama at the Impact Awards 2014 and a Jury's Special Mention at the Zoom Igualada Festival.

The Shanghai International TV Festival was the first TV festival on the continent and today stands as one of the leading events of its kind. Since it was first staged in 1986, it has sought to promote cooperation and communication between the Chinese audiovisual industry and the rest of the world. It is one of just a few festivals that presents a series of awards, organizes a market for programs and stages a series of forums, all at the same event.