Seriesly Berlin kept up its reputation for backing complex TV series with its latest batch of award winners.

Hands Up, a music drama series pitch from the U.S. focused on an Israeli musician and a Palestinian singer brought together in Berlin’s hip-hop scene was the winner of the Writers’ Pitch Award last night at a ceremony near the Fotografiska in Germany’s capital.

The pitch was a popular winner, with the jury unanimous on the victor and several audience members we spoke to all agreeing on the standout choice. The audience cheered wildly as the announcement was made.

“Hands Up has all the ingredients to be a great series: a clear central conflict, extraordinary characters, and even great music,” said the Seriesly Berlin jury in a statement. “It is a perfect example of a hyper local premise that can serve as a metaphor, touching audiences around the world. This story shows us that creative collaboration can bridge impossible borders, providing a path to mutual understanding in troubled times.”

Coming from Neta Weiner, Samira Saraya and Michal Cooper Keren and borne out of the U.S., the story follows Israeli musician Geva and Palestinian singer Manal, who join together for a high-stakes collaboration by Petra, a former music industry figure who sees in their volatile chemistry a chance for a comeback of her own. As their music gains traction, their growing fame soon turns dangerous, and they are caught between political pressure, family expectations and ongoing public scrutiny, forcing them to risk relationships, their future and even their lives for the freedom to be heard.

The show beat of pitches from Ireland, Germany, Serbia and the UK to win the Writers Pitch award, and takes home a €1,000 ($1,150) prize.

Elsewhere, Latvian drama The Man Behind a Mask (Cilvēks Maskā) won the Co-Pro Pitch Award and landed a €25,000 post-production services prize.

The show, from creator Anna Kalnina and producer Serge Serpuhovs, follows celebrated Soviet reconstructive surgeon Nikolay, who pioneers groundbreaking procedures, including the USSR’s first sex reassignment surgery, until the KGB blackmails him into espionage.

Per the snyopsis, “His missions take him across Europe and beyond, where each medical breakthrough becomes a covert operation. Torn between his calling as a healer and his role as a spy, Nikolay is forced to betray patients, outwit intelligence agencies, and confront impossible moral choices. In the end, he survives, but returns home forever changed, having lost both his innocence and his faith in the regime.”

The jury said it was “an engaging story about power and vulnerabilities, set in an original arena and based on true events that uses spy thriller elements to create a highly entertaining show for an international audience with the potential to run for multiple seasons.”

The SteinbrennerMüller Award, which is handed out by Berlin-based PR firm SteinbrennerMüller Kommunkation to a German show with the best potential to connect with audiences, went to Hannah Doose’s I Am God (Ich Bin Gott).

The show follows eight middle-aged people in midlife who come together at a spiritual festival on the German-Polish border. Amid cacao ceremonies, breathwork and psychedelic rituals, relationships begin to unravel, families drift apart and old wounds resurface, as the festival organizers ignore warnings of an approaching tornado.

“The premise is a very clear promise of entertainment – world-building set in a nature reserve on the border between Germany and Poland,” said a rep from SteinbrennerMüller. “I Am God explores social issues in a light-hearted yet relevant way through exaggeration.

“This closed setting allows for the creation of characters who reflect all facets of society and with whom a wide audience can identify, combined with plenty of fun. Hovering over it all is the looming threat of an approaching tornado, which could wipe out all those ‘first world problems’ in an instant.”

Mayana FIlms is the producer, with Doose writing alongside Nicolas Chevaillier and Sarah Schill. Chevaillier and Zorana Mušikić are the producers.

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