2020 Nominees

The Negotiators: Taipei Hostage Crisis

CNA, Mediacorp Pte Ltd., Peddling Pictures

SINGAPORE, TAIWAN

Documentary & Factual - Crime & Investigative

Negotiating is part of every day life. From haggling at the market, asking for pay raises and navigating relationship issues, we do it all the time. But there are a few exceptional people who can give insights into the art of negotiation when the stakes are high. What secrets can the men and women who have mastered the art of tact in the face of lethal circumstances reveal? Across four episodes, we meet negotiators who can talk down people armed with explosives, bargain with Somali pirates, deal with Burmese rebels who have stormed an embassy and confront a serial killer threatening to kill a family of five. We dive into the minds of the mediators involved in these life and death situations to understand what it takes to navigate a crisis where one wrong move could prove deadly. Each episode reconstructs the hostage crisis step by step, retracing the thought process of master negotiators to learn how they buy time, build rapport and most importantly, decide when it's time to use force.