This morning at 10:30, fueled by sweet rolls and pastries, an audience gathered in one of the Showroom cinemas here in Sheffield to attend the awards ceremony that officially closes this edition of the Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Once again, it was said, as it has been many times, that since taking over the running of this market, festival director Heather Croall has done an incredible job of putting Sheffield on the map as a highly important destination for media makers and media professionals. Croall, in turn, celebrated the programming work of Hussain Currimbhoy, by saying that she heard from many jury members how appreciative they were to be able to judge such across-the-board inspiring and important work.
Roger Graef hosted the ceremonies, assisted by the lovely AJ Schnack, where members of the juries presented the nominated films and the award-winners. Halfway through, at 11:00 a.m., there was a two-minute silence to honor soldiers everywhere in observance of Remembrance Day.
The Sheffield Green Award honors the documentary from the program that best addresses major environmental challenges on our planet. Nominees were The Blood of the Rose, The Cove, Earth Days, Haynesville, Petropolis, Shelter in Place, and A Time Comes. The Blood of the Rose received the award.
The Wallflower Press Student Doc Award was given to the best student documentary made as part of course work from UK and other international universities. I took the time to see most of these films (I make it a point to check out student work at any festival or film event) and everything I saw was exciting, exceedingly well-crafted, original storytelling. Arsy-Versy, a 24 minute film from Slovakia directed by Miro Remo won the prize. I absolutely adore this film. It is imaginative, funny, and artfully told. I was astounded at the proficiency and sophistication of the shooting. The rest of the selections, particularly, Presidio Modelo, Time Within Time and Tsirk, were impressive.
The Sheffield Innovation Award, given to a film that exhibits originality in approach to form and radical manifestations in story delivery presented pieces ranging from art installations to solely web-residential work, running the gamut from video mapping in Palestine to the stunning and singular cinematic passion plays of Finnish filmmaker Jukka Kärkkäinen's The Living Room of the Nation. An honorable mention was given to The Big Issue from France, and the award was given to LoopLoop from Canada.
The Sheffield Youth Jury Award is given to a film that engages a young audience judged by a jury consisting of young adults from 16 - 21. In extremely eloquent fashion, they gave the award to Andrew Lang's gorgeous Sons of Cuba. I did do a really wonderful interview with Andrew several months ago for the Shooting People site and it's gone missing, somehow, which we're both a bit puzzled by. I hope it gets published somewhere soon. Lang just won another well-deserved prize at the Rome International Fest in October, as well. A theatrical distributor should grab this straight away.
The Special Jury Award, Sheffield's very first, honors a film that displays excellence in style, substance and approach. The jury consisted of US filmmaker, AJ Schnack, ITVS's Claire Aguilar (US), UK filmmaker, Kim Longinotto, UK filmmaker, Nick Broomfield, and US filmmaker, RJ Cutler. The nominees were Horses, I'm Dangerous With Love, Junior, Men of the City, October Country, Petition, Until the Next Resurrection, and the prize-winner, Erik Gandini's Videocracy.
The Sheffield Doc/Fest Inspiration Award, again an inaugural honor here, celebrated the work of journalist, Adam Curtis, a man who has championed documentary (although he never really considered himself a documentary filmmaker until recently) and his decades-long contribution to groundbreaking television work. A filmmaker who is embracing the digital future utilizing a multi-platform approach to projects, his latest is a collaboration with Punchdrunk called "It Felt Like A Kiss." He gave a very short, but eloquent, speech on the muddy terrain between journalism and documentary filmmaking, and how the ascendancy of nonfiction storytellers is usurping a once robust, but now dangerously ineffectual, news media.
The Audience Award will be announced tomorrow, Monday the 9th. I will, unfortunately, be in that disorienting twilight zone of all-day travel getting myself back to the States for an onslaught of work. I'm looking forward to posting more about Sheffield--look for more impressions, film reviews and articles over the coming months.
Finally, I'd like to express personal (big!) thanks to Charlie Phillips and Rachel Smith.
Thanks for this comprehensive round-up, Pamela! Really hoping I can attend Sheffield one day, but at least now I'm working in the business, so there may be a chance someone will pay for a trip at some point! :)
Posted by: James McNally | November 08, 2009 at 04:42 PM