Undercover, for Belgian broadcaster VRT, has won the jury prize for Best Series at the award-winning Cinequest Festival in San José, California. ‘Undercover’ will hit Netflix worldwide on May 3rd.

Cinequest is one of the most renowned festivals in the USA, held every year in San José, Silicon Valley. The festival focuses on new and upcoming talents and celebrated its 29th edition this year.

‘Undercover’ has had quite an international career so far. The series, which is the first Belgian-Dutch coproduction for Netflix, was also co-financed by German broadcaster ZDF and French distributor Federation Entertainment. In April 2018, ‘Undercover’ was nominated for the Official Competition at the Canneséries festival. At the Seriencamp Festival in Munich in November, ‘Undercover’ won the Audience Award.

With an average of 1.355.379 viewers per episode in Flanders (over 50% marketshare), ‘Undercover’ is public broadcaster VRT’s current hit series.

Tom Waes : “I’m so thrilled with this award. Recognition from the States – the Valhalla of the TV world – is an incredible honor. The public was triggered by the story and the humor during the Cinequest screenings. The reactions from the audience were simply amazing. That’s a wonderful feeling. I can only hope the reactions to the series will be just as great once ’Undercover’ will hit Netflix on May 3rd.“ 

Michael Rabehl (Programming Director Cinequest): “The jury has chosen ‘Undercover’ as the winner for its beautiful writing, directing, producing, acting, and cinematography—which work fluidly together to create a captivating, character-driven thriller.”

The 10-episode series stars Belgian and Dutch stars TOM WAES and ANNA DRIJVER as two undercover agents on a dangerous mission. Their target is Dutchman Ferry Bouman (FRANK LAMMERS), one of the largest ecstasy producers in the world. He lives a charmed life, partly in his villa, partly on a nearby campground, on the Dutch-Belgian border. But things start to change when two undercover agents move into his territory, attempt to infiltrate Bouman’s life and shut down his network.

‘Undercover’ is produced by Pieter Van Huyck, Ivy Vanhaecke and Jan Theys. Writers were showrunner Nico Moolenaar, Bart Uytdenhouwen and Piet Matthys. Eshref Reybrouck and Frank Devos were in charge of directing.

Filming of the 2nd season starts in April 2019. ‘Undercover’ will be available worldwide on Netflix from May 3rd.

‘Undercover’ is a production from De Mensen for VRT/Eén, in collaboration with Proximus, Gardner and Domm, Netflix, Source Investments/DFW, Federation Entertainment, ZDF, Good Friends, Gallop and the Tax Shelter measure from the Federal Government.