You swap allegiances. Then Alice becomes the problem.
At the Canneseries festival in Cannes, the streaming landscape revealed something about where storytelling is heading: not toward spectacle, but toward moral complexity and human discomfort. Disney+'s 'Alice and Steve,' a comedy that refuses to let its audience settle into easy judgment, claimed the festival's top prize — a signal that platforms are beginning to trust comedy with the same ambition once reserved for prestige drama. Alongside it, a Finnish portrait of athletic obsession, a Spanish meditation on single motherhood, and a Belgian reconstruction of shadow diplomacy each suggested that international voices are no longer waiting at the margins of the conversation.
- Disney+ arrived at Canneseries not as a passive distributor but as a deliberate commissioner, staking its U.K. ambitions on a comedy designed to make audiences squirm with their own shifting loyalties.
- The festival's top prize going to a comedy — a form long underestimated in prestige circles — signals a quiet disruption in how streaming platforms and awards bodies are beginning to value laughter alongside gravity.
- From Finland's snow-covered psychological thriller to a Barcelona apartment where rent and childcare crush a mother's margins, the awards mapped a geography of human pressure points that no single culture owns.
- Belgium's double victory — one in joyful community storytelling, one in covert geopolitical reconstruction — underscored that smaller national industries are producing work with both intimacy and international reach.
- The cumulative picture emerging from the ceremony is one of strategic pivot: platforms and creators alike are betting that audiences want stories that unsettle, relocate sympathy, and resist the comfort of resolution.
Tuesday night's Canneseries ceremony handed Disney+ its most significant European festival moment yet, with 'Alice and Steve' claiming best series, special interpretation, and student jury awards in a single sweep. The comedy, created by Sophie Goodhart — a writer-director who emerged from 'Sex Education' — follows the fallout when a middle-aged man falls for his platonic friend's 26-year-old daughter. What makes it work, as star Nicola Walker described it, is the way it forces viewers to continuously swap allegiances: the people who seem like villains become sympathetic, and the person who seems wronged becomes complicated. Goodhart's stated hope is that audiences leave the show less judgmental than when they arrived. Canneseries artistic director Albin Lewi praised the series for demonstrating that comedy, when constructed with precision, is among the hardest and most rewarding forms to execute.
The performance prize went to Roosa Söderholm for 'Guts,' a Finnish series following a cross-country skiing champion's final pursuit of a world title. Described as 'Black Swan in snow,' the show examines the psychological cost of elite athletic obsession and was commissioned by Finnish public broadcaster Yle. Lewi noted the value of honoring a fictional treatment of sports at a moment when the festival circuit has been saturated with documentaries on the same subject.
The screenplay award recognized the Spanish series 'I Always Sometimes,' seven years in development, which follows a Barcelona mother navigating single parenthood against a backdrop of gentrification, rising rents, and relentless childcare logistics. The writers — Marta Bassols, Marta Loza, and Almudena Monzú — built every line of dialogue to carry double weight, anticipating future events while pressing on emotional and thematic nerves.
Belgium claimed two prizes: 'Boho,' a short-form dramedy set in Antwerp's multicultural Borgerhout neighborhood, told through dance and music, won its category; and 'The Deal With Iran,' a docuseries reconstructing a thwarted bombing near Paris and the covert diplomacy that followed, brought espionage-thriller pacing to real geopolitical events. Jonas Wikstrand took best music for 'Summer of 1985,' a coming-of-age fantasy with both nostalgic warmth and darker undercurrents, while the absurdist German-Austrian short series 'Sheep' — set in a world where sheep attempt to domesticate humans — claimed the high school jury award, confirming that Central European deadpan continues to find its audience on the Croisette.
The Canneseries awards ceremony on Tuesday night belonged to Disney+, which walked away with the festival's top prize for "Alice and Steve," a comedy about the wreckage that follows when a middle-aged man begins dating his platonic friend's much younger daughter. The win marks a significant moment for the streaming giant's U.K. office, which commissioned the series as part of a deliberate expansion into comedy. It also represents a major breakthrough for Sophie Goodhart, the "Sex Education" writer-director making her debut as a series creator, working with producer Clerkenwell Films—the company behind "Baby Reindeer."
The premise sounds like a setup for judgment, but the series does something more interesting. It forces viewers to constantly recalibrate their sympathies. You begin certain that Steve and Izzy, the 26-year-old daughter, are the villains in Alice's story. Then the show shifts the ground beneath you. These two people are genuinely falling in love. They seem, in fact, almost right for each other. The problem becomes Alice herself—and by the end, everyone has hurt everyone else in ways that feel uncomfortably true to how actual relationships fracture. Nicola Walker, who plays Alice alongside Jermaine Clement's Steve, described the experience to Variety: the series makes you swap allegiances repeatedly, and that moral vertigo is precisely what makes it work. Goodhart, for her part, has always been drawn to comedy that makes audiences uncomfortable. "My dream would be for people to come away from the show being less judgmental," she said. Canneseries artistic director Albin Lewi praised the writing and construction of character, noting that comedy is genuinely difficult to execute well, and this series demonstrated mastery of dialogue and ensemble work.
The performance award went to Roosa Söderholm, a rising Finnish star who carries "Guts," a series created by Jemina Jokisalo, the filmmaker behind the feminist documentary "Money Shot." Söderholm plays Anna, a cross-country skiing champion who gets one final chance at a world title. The series, commissioned by Finnish public broadcaster Yle and sold internationally by About Premium Content, has been described as "Black Swan" in snow—a portrait of athletic obsession and the psychological cost of elite competition. Lewi noted the significance of celebrating another emerging talent, particularly in a year when sports documentaries have dominated festival conversations. It felt important, he suggested, to recognize a fictional treatment of the same terrain.
The screenplay award went to Marta Bassols, Marta Loza, and Almudena Monzú for "I Always Sometimes," a Spanish drama that took seven years to develop and produce. The series examines single motherhood with unflinching realism, following a Barcelona mother navigating the economic brutality of raising a child alone in a city transformed by gentrification. Rents have skyrocketed. Childcare is a constant logistical puzzle. The show doesn't sentimentalize any of it. Every line of dialogue, Bassols explained, was constructed to either anticipate future events or touch on deeper emotional and thematic currents. The series comes from Movistar Plus+ and Suma Content, the production company of filmmakers Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, known for "Velvet" and other prestige Spanish television.
Belgium claimed two major victories. "Boho," a short-form dramedy set in the Antwerp neighborhood of Borgerhout, won in its category. Created by Abbie Boutkabout and directed by Olympia Allaert, it tells the stories of three young female friends through intricately choreographed dance and music sequences, capturing the texture of a multicultural community. Lewi called it a "joyful series" at a moment when joy feels scarce in television. It was produced by Jonnydepony, the Flemish production house behind last year's "The Big Fuck-Up." The other Belgian triumph came from "The Deal With Iran," a docuseries created by brothers Lennart and Maarten Stuyck that reconstructs a thwarted bomb attack near Paris and the covert investigation that followed—a story of shadow wars, political pressure, and hostage diplomacy told with the pacing and visual language of an espionage thriller.
Jonas Wikstrand won best music for "Summer of 1985," a coming-of-age fantasy produced by Media Res and directed by Björn Stein, who created "The Bridge." Wikstrand's score captures both the wistful nostalgia and darker undercurrents of the narrative, which has emerged as one of the most commercially promising titles in the competition. In the high school award for short-form series, "Sheep"—a German and Austrian production set in a world where sheep attempt to domesticate humans—took the prize, suggesting that absurdist humor from Central Europe continues to find an audience at the festival.
Notable Quotes
You start by assuming you could never side with Steve or Izzy. But then you swap allegiances. They all end up really, really hurting each other, which seems very much like real life.— Nicola Walker, star of "Alice and Steve"
My dream would be for people to come away from the show being less judgmental.— Sophie Goodhart, creator of "Alice and Steve"
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a show about a man dating his friend's daughter win the top prize at a festival? That seems like it should be controversial.
Because it refuses to be simple about it. The show doesn't let you hate Steve or Izzy. It makes you understand them, even sympathize with them, which forces you to confront your own judgments. That's harder than just picking sides.
And that's what Sophie Goodhart was after—making people less judgmental?
Yes. She's drawn to comedy that makes you squirm, that puts you in uncomfortable positions. The series does that by showing how real people actually hurt each other, not through malice but through genuine conflicting needs and desires.
It seems like streaming platforms are betting heavily on comedy now. Is that a shift?
It is. Disney+ commissioned this specifically as part of a push into comedy. For years, prestige television meant drama. But comedy is harder to write well, and when it works—when the dialogue is sharp and the characters are real—it can be more memorable than another dark drama.
What about the other winners? Do they have anything in common?
They're all character-driven. "Guts" is about an athlete's obsession. "I Always Sometimes" is about the specific economic reality of a single mother. "Boho" celebrates a multicultural neighborhood through dance. They're not trying to be everything to everyone. They're specific, deeply observed, and they trust the audience to find themselves in the specificity.