'Babylon Berlin,' 'Dark' take home Grimme Prizes

With 68 winners, the 2018 Grimme Prizes awarded on Friday celebrate a record-number of TV productions. 

"Mass and class," said the director of the Grimme Institute, Frauke Gerlach, when the winners were revealed in March. 

"The award winners have done an excellent job of showing a large cross-section of what television has to offer and its possibilities."

Among the winners were two original German television series that are well-known abroad.

"Babylon Berlin," the film adaptation of a detective novel set in Weimar-era Berlin, co-produced by ARD and pay-TV provider Sky, took home awards in the fiction category.

"Dark," produced by Netflix for its own platform, won for quality television, making it the first series produced by a streaming service to obtain a Grimme Prize.

"The quality of these high-class series shows that Germany can hold its own on the international series market," said Gerlach.

Read more: How a Highlands publisher has hit the big time with 'Babylon Berlin'

Additional awards

A third big winner of the award is "4Blocks," which follows a Lebanese family on the streets of Berlin's Neukölln district.

Reporting about the riots in Hamburg surrounding the G20 summit in 2017, as well as reports on refugees and the loss of schoolchildren aboard the "Sewol," a ferry that sunk in South Korea, likewise received honors.

One of Germany's most important awards in the television industry, the Grimme Prize is named for the first Director General of the Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks television station. It has adapted categories in recent years to reflect new media contributions.