"Ryuichi Sakamoto: Last Days" and "Hell Jumper", two works awarded by the Prix Italia, triumph at the International Emmy Awards, hosted in New York by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS).

"International awards still represent a lifeblood for broadcasters and the best of creativity on very important topics," says Chiara Longo Bifano, Secretary General of the Prix Italia and a Rai journalist. "Exactly one month ago, on October 24th, our awards ceremony took place in Naples, with the Japanese and British finalists to receive the Prix Italia. It highlights the excellent work of our juries, and today we once again congratulate NHK and the BBC, with two works on the meaning of life, capable of speaking to a universal audience".
The Emmy for Best Arts Programming was awarded to "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Last Days" (NHK), which had already won the Prix Italia 2025 in both the Performing Arts category and the Special Prize in Honour of the President of the Italian Republic.

The documentary offers an extraordinary, intimate account of the final months of the great Japanese composer and music patron's life, through diaries, reflections, and testimonies that convey his inexhaustible artistic energy. "In Italy we might have initially misjudged the project to be slightly macabre," observes Longo Bifano, "but the Japanese have succeeded with masterful sensitivity in celebrating the triumph of music over illness".

The Emmy Award for Best Documentary went to the British film "Hell Jumper" (BBC), which had already won the same category at the Prix Italia and received the Signis Special Prize.
The work recreates, through bodycams and private multimedia materials, the civil courage of Chris Parry, a twenty-eight-year-old from Cornwall who gave up his life to rescue Ukrainian civilians trapped in war zones, dying in 2023. "Hell Jumper seems like a dystopian video game," concludes Longo Bifano, "but instead it creates a new language to tell a young audience about one of the most complex realities of our time, the war in Ukraine".

The winning works of the 77th Prix Italia were available for two weeks on RaiPlay, the Rai free on demand online platform. Interviews with the winners and the awards ceremony can be watched on www.rai.it/prixitalia.


Official Press Release (Italian)