See the nominations, shortlist and judges for Grierson 2010.

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The winners

Shell International Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue

  • Moving to Mars

    Moving to Mars
    Director:
    Mat Whitecross
    Producer:
    Karen Katz
    Production company:
    Coded Pictures
    First UK screening:
    2 February 2010; More 4

    Moving to Mars charts the epic journey made by two Burmese families from a vast refugee camp on the Thai/Burma border to their new homes in the UK. At times hilarious, at times emotional, their travels provide fascinating and unique insight not only into the effects of migration, but also into one of the most important current political crises - Burma.

Best Documentary on the Arts

  • Arena: T.S. Eliot

    Arena: T.S. Eliot
    Director/producer:
    Adam Low
    Executive Producer:
    Anthony Wall
    Production company:
    BBC Arena
    First UK screening:
    6 June 2009; BBC Two

    For the first time on television, Arena tells the whole story of the life and work of T. S. Eliot. His widow Valerie Eliot has opened her personal archive, hitherto unseen, including their private scrapbook and albums. An unprecedented insight into the life of the 20th century’s greatest poet. Contributors include Seamus Heaney, Lady Spender, Jeanette Winterson and Andrew Lloyd-Webber.

History Today Best Historical Documentary

  • Requiem for Detroit

    Requiem for Detroit
    Director:
    Julien Temple
    Producer:
    George Hencken
    Executive Producer:
    Roger Graef
    Production company:
    Films of Record
    First UK screening:
    13 March 2010; BBC Two

    This film evokes an apocalyptic vision. Once America’s fourth largest city, Detroit was built by the car for the car, with the first freeways, suburbs, and shopping centres, it embodied the American dream. Now it’s a dystopic city. Greenery grows through ruined office blocks and car plants. Crime and arson are rife. But there's hope. Streets are being turned to art. Farming is returning to the city. Is this the future for post-industrial cities?

Best Science Documentary

  • Race and Intelligence: Science’s Last Taboo

    Race and Intelligence
    Director/producer:
    David Hickman
    Producer:
    Leesa Rumley
    Executive Producer:
    David Dugan
    Production company:
    Windfall Films
    First UK screening:
    26 October 2009; Channel 4

    In this documentary, part of the season Race: Science's Last Taboo, Rageh Omaar sets out to find out the truth, meeting scientists who believe the research supports the view that races can be differentiated as well as those who vehemently oppose this view. By daring to ask the difficult questions, Omaar is able to explode the myths about race and IQ and reveal what he thinks are important lessons for society.

Most Entertaining Documentary

  • Exit Through the Gift Shop

    Exit Through the Gift Shop
    Director:
    Banksy
    Producer:
    Jaimie D'Cruz
    Executive Producers:
    Holly Cushing, James Gay-Rees, Zam Baring
    Production company:
    Paranoid Pictures Film Company Ltd
    First UK screening:
    5 March 2010; General theatrical release

    Exit Through The Gift Shop traces an eccentric French shop owner’s efforts to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. An incendiary true story of low-level criminality, companionship and incompetence.

Best Drama Documentary

  • Endgame

    Endgame
    Director:
    Peter Travis
    Producers:
    Hal Vogel, David Aukin
    Writer:
    Paula Milne
    Production company:
    Daybreak
    First UK screening:
    4 May 2009; Channel 4

    Endgame is an epic political thriller revealing the true story of the secret talks that helped to end apartheid, and the brave individuals who risked everything to make them happen South Africa in 1985.

Envy Best Documentary Series

  • The Force

    The Force
    Director:
    Patrick Forbes
    Producer:
    Stephanie Collins
    Production company:
    Oxford Film and Television
    First UK screening:
    13 October 2009; Channel 4

    With unprecedented and unvarnished access to Hampshire Constabulary, this new series lays bare the challenges faced by frontline officers: investigating a murder in the social complexity of modern Britain which moves from the leafy Home Counties to London's immigrant communities; the dedicated officers trying to improve the rape conviction rate even when alcohol makes the evidence hard to find; and an arson investigation that crosses the line of a drug-fuelled underworld.

Best Cinema Documentary

  • Mugabe and the White African

    Mugabe and the White African
    Directors:
    Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson
    Producers:
    David Pearson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock
    Executive Producers:
    Steve Milne, Pauline Burt
    Production company:
    Arturi Films Ltd
    First UK screening:
    7 January 2010; General theatrical release

    Michael Campbell is one of the few hundred white farmers left in Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe began his violent 'Land Reform' program in 2000. What follows is an intimate, moving and often terrifying account of one man and his family’s extraordinary courage in the face of overwhelming injustice and brutality.

The Jonathan Gili Award for the Best Newcomer

  • Sons of Cuba

    Sons of Cuba
    Director:
    Andrew Lang
    Producers:
    Francine Heywood, Laura Giles, Mandy Chang
    Production company:
    Sons of Cuba Ltd, Windfall Films,
    First UK screening:
    5 November 2009; General theatrical release

    The Havana Boxing Academy is a boarding school that takes 9-year-old boys, and turns them into the best boxers in the world. Sons Of Cuba follows three young hopefuls through 8 dramatic months as they prepare for Cuba's National Boxing Championship for Under-12's. But during the season, crisis strikes: Fidel Castro is taken ill, and Cuba's Olympic boxing champions defect to the USA, leaving Cuba at a crossroads, and the boys contemplating a changing world.

Trustees' Award

  • Penny Woolcock

    Penny Woolcock

    Penny Woolcock has directed a string of award winning documentaries, television shows and feature films. Her television single, Tina Goes Shopping, was nominated for a BAFTA Television Award for Innovation, and the follow-up, Tina Takes a Break, won Best Single Drama at the Broadcast Awards. She has collected a host of awards and nominations for her other television projects and for her fearless and original documentaries including The Wet House, The Five of Us and Silver Darlings.

    Grierson Trustee and fellow film-maker Peter Symes said: "Penny Woolcock is a fearless documentary film maker – unafraid to approach difficult subjects, to question accepted mores, or to fight for what she believes in. She manages to do this without in any way losing her humanity or compassion. A joy to work with if you are behind the camera, she never loses faith with those who agree to appear in front of it."

    • Read the news release