Nominations - 2010

The winners were announced at the annual awards ceremony on Tuesday, 2 November 2010 at the BFI Southbank London.

Categories

• Shell International Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue
• Best Documentary on the Arts
• History Today Best Historical Documentary
• Best Science Documentary
• Most Entertaining Documentary
• Best Drama Documentary
• Envy Best Documentary Series
• Best Cinema Documentary
• The Jonathan Gili Award for the Best Newcomer
• Trustees' Award

Nominations

Shell International Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue

• 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.

• Murder on the Lake

  

  Director/Producer:

  Henry Singer

  Executive Producers:

  Charlotte Moore, Magnus Temple

  Production company:

  Sandpaper Films, Dragonfly

  First UK screening:

  7 November 2009; Sheffield Doc/Fest

  The extraordinary life and brutal death of filmmaker-turned-conservationist Joan Root and her campaign to save her beloved Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Part whodunit, part psychological study and part environmental tract, the film provokes some troubling questions about an Africa still emerging from the legacy of colonialism.

• Welcome to Lagos - Episode 3

  

  Directors:

  Gavin Searle, Frankie Fathers

  Executive Producer:

  Andrew Palmer

  Series Producer:

  Will Anderson

  Production company:

  KEO films

  First UK screening:

  29 April 2010; BBC Two

  Welcome to Lagos is an observational documentary series shot in the slums of Lagos, the fastest growing megacity in the world. Episode 3 looks at the improvements to the city that are being instigated by the city’s new politicians. The slum dwellers, who squat illegally on the beach, live in constant threat from the municipal bulldozers.

• Wounded

  

  Director/producer:

  Sara Hardy

  Executive Producer:

  Jane Aldous

  Production company:

  BBC

  First UK screening:

  23 September 2009; BBC One

  Wounded follows the journey of two injured soldiers: a 19 year old Ranger Andy Allen who, in July 2008, had his right leg blown off and his eyes badly burnt by an improvised explosive device; and a 24-year-old Lance Corporal Tom Neathway who lost three limbs after moving a booby-trapped sandbag. Unconscious and watched by their families, these soldiers fight for their lives…. But surviving their injuries is just the beginning

Best Documentary on the Arts

• 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.

• Imagine... David Hockney: A Bigger Picture

  

  Director/producer:

  Bruno Wollheim

  Executive Producers:

  Alan Yentob, Janet Lee

  Production company:

  Coluga Pictures

  First UK screening:

  30 June 2009; BBC One

  Shot single-handedly over three years, this unprecedented record of a major artist at work captures David Hockney’s return from California to paint the East Yorkshire landscape of his childhood. It follows Hockney’s efforts to disengage from photography and find renewal by working for the first time outside, through the seasons and in all weathers. It is at once the inspiring story of a homecoming, an examination of the creative process and a revealing portrait of what motivates a world-famous artist as time runs out.

• Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me

  

  Director:

  Sheila Hayman

  Executive Producers:

  Alan Hayling, Peter Grimsdale

  Production company:

  Renegade Pictures (UK) Ltd.

  First UK screening:

  26 June 2009; BBC Four

  How does a little Jewish boy in Germany end up singing Nazi songs - and singing them back to his daughter seventy years later? How could a single piece of classical music be such a problem for the Third Reich that they made forty-four separate tries at replacing it, even as the country was being bombed to pieces around them?

• Only When I Dance

  

  Director:

  Beadie Finzi

  Producer:

  Nikki Parrott, Giorgia LoSavio

  Production company:

  Tigerlilly Films

  First UK screening:

  25 December 2009; Channel 4

  This film follows a year in the life of Isabela and Irlan, two aspiring ballet dancers who engage daily in a clash between two worlds: rich and poor, black and white. Steeped in the history of the wealthy white elite, many feel that the likes of Irlan Santos da Silva and Isabela Cracy, two black kids from poor backgrounds, do not belong. Despite the constant prejudice and doubt, both are determined to follow their ambitions.

History Today Best Historical Documentary

• Deadliest Crash

  

  Directors:

  Richard Heap, John Mathews

  Producer:

  John Mathews

  Executive Producers:

  John Mathews, John Battsek, Emma Willis

  Production company:

  Bigger Picture

  First UK screening:

  18 November 2009; British Racing Drivers’ Club, Silverstone

  This is the story of the world's biggest motorsport disaster. In Le Mans in 1955 Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh smashed into the crowd killing 120 people and injuring hundreds more. Astonishingly the race carried on. What caused this tragedy has been embroiled in blame, mystery and conjecture ever since. This is exactly what happened with newly discovered cine material lost for 55 years and the stories from those in the firing line.

• Great Offices of State: The Dark Department (The Home Office)

  

  Director:

  James Giles

  Producer:

  Michael Cockerell

  Executive Producer:

  Martin Wilson

  Production company:

  BBC Current Affairs

  First UK screening:

  7 February 2010; BBC Four

  The Home Office is one of the oldest and most secretive of all government departments. Michael Cockerell traces its history from its creation nearly two hundred and fifty years ago to its present day role as the ministry of law and order, immigration, MI5 and counter-terrorism. The film also seeks to capture the peculiar Home Office culture and DNA that has developed over the years, with special filming, archive and interviews with past present Home Secretaries and their normally camera-shy top mandarins.

• 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?

• Soundtrack for a Revolution

  

  Director:

  Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman

  Producers:

  Joslyn Barnes, Jim Czarnecki, Bill Guttentag, Dylan Nelson, Dan Sturman

  Executive Producers:

  Danny Glover, Jarret Lilien, Gina Harrell, Mark E. Downie, Marc Henry Johnson

  Production company:

  Freedom Song Productions

  First UK screening:

  4 November 2009; Sheffield Doc/Fest

  Soundtrack for a Revolution tells the story of the American civil rights movement through the powerful songs that protesters sang on picket lines, in mass meetings, and in jail cells. The film is a vibrant blend of heart-wrenching interviews, dramatic historical images, and thrilling contemporary performances by top recording artists.

Best Science Documentary

• The Price of Life

  

  Director/producer:

  Adam Wishart

  Executive Producer:

  Julian Mercer

  Production company:

  BBC Vision

  First UK screening:

  17 June 2009; BBC Two

  On a finite budget, the NHS can't afford to offer every treatment on the market, so how does the nation choose which patients should be the winners - and which should be the losers. Award-winning director Adam Wishart follows one nail-biting decision about one drug, with unprecedented access to the decision-making NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence); the patients who need a life extending treatment, and the American company that discovered and will profit from it.

• Race and Intelligence: Science’s Last Taboo

  

  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.

• Storyville: The Trials of J Robert Oppenheimer

  

  Director/producer:

  David Grubin

  Executive Producer:

  Greg Sanderson

  Production company:

  BBC, WGBH

  First UK screening:

  15 July 2009; BBC Four

  The Trials of J.Robert Oppenheimer, a co-production between the BBC and WGBH tells the extraordinary story of the rise and fall of Robert Oppenheimer.

• Wonders of the Solar System: Empire of the Sun

  

  Director/producer:

  Gideon Bradshaw

  Executive Producer:

  Andrew Cohen

  Series Producer:

  Danielle Peck

  Production company:

  BBC Vision Science

  First UK screening:

  7 March 2010; BBC 2

  In this spell-binding episode, Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on Earth to describe our intimate connection with the powerhouse of them all, the Sun. In India he witnesses a total solar eclipse, in Norway he watches the Northern Lights as the night sky glows with the Sun’s energy. Beyond Earth, Brian makes contact with NASA’s Voyager probe and he glimpses the Sun’s far distant fate as a red giant star.

Most Entertaining Documentary

• American: The Bill Hicks Story

  

  Director/producers:

  Paul Thomas, Matt Harlock

  Production company:

  Halflife Films, Jackamo TV

  First UK screening:

  23 October 2009; London Film Festival

  At last, the true life story of the outlaw comic who tried to save the world. American: The Bill Hicks Story uses a stunning new animation technique to finally bring the amazing tale of one of modern culture's most iconic heroes to the big screen.

• The Choir: The Unsung Town

  

  Directors:

  Dollan Cannell, Harry Beney

  Producer:

  Vicky Mitchell

  Executive Producers:

  Jamie Isaacs, Dollan Cannell

  Production company:

  Twenty Twenty Television

  First UK screening:

  1 September 2009; BBC Two

  The charismatic choirmaster from the award winning series The Choir is back, and about to embark on his biggest musical mission yet. Can Gareth Malone persuade the residents of a neglected Hertfordshire housing estate to unite in song and create Britain’s biggest community choir?

• 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.

• Kim Jong-Il’s Comedy Club

  

  Director:

  Mads Brugger

  Producer:

  Peter Engel

  Production company:

  Danmarks Radio, Zentropa

  First UK screening:

  8 February 2010; BBC Four

  A journalist with no scruples and a pair of Danish comedians travel to North Korea with a mission to use humour to uncover the truth behind one of the world's most notorious regimes on the pretext of being a small Danish theatre troupe on a cultural exchange, the filmmaker was granted permission by the North Korean government to stage a performance for a select audience in the capital.

Best Drama Documentary

• 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.

• Five Daughters

  

  Director:

  Philippa Lowthorpe

  Producer:

  Simon Lewis

  Executive Producer:

  Susan Hogg

  Writer:

  Stephen Butchard

  Production company:

  BBC Productions

  First UK screening:

  25 April 2010; BBC One

  A three-part drama-documentary exploring the lives of the five young women tragically murdered in Ipswich in the winter of 2006. Dramatised from the testimony of family members, friends, drugs workers and Police, it focuses on the battles these women had with drug addiction and how that led them on to the streets.

• Micro Men

  

  Director:

  Saul Metzstein

  Producer:

  Andrea Cornwell

  Executive Producer:

  Elinor Day

  Writer:

  Tony Saint

  Production company:

  Darlow Smithson Productions

  First UK screening:

  8 October 2009; BBC Four

  Micro Men is an affectionately comic drama about the British home computer boom of the early 1980s. Legendary inventor Clive Sinclair (Alexander Armstrong) dominates the fledgling market, but ex-employee Chris Curry (Martin Freeman) is determined to challenge his crown. Their rivalry comes to a head when Chris wins a BBC competition to put a micro in every school in Britain. Sinclair is furious and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum...

• Mo

  

  Director:

  Philip Martin

  Producer:

  Lisa Gilchrist

  Executive Producer:

  Jeff Pope

  Writer:

  Neil McKay

  Production company:

  ITV Studios

  First UK screening:

  30 January 2010; Channel 4

  Oscar-nominated actress Julie Walters takes on the lead role in a revealing portrait of Mo Mowlam; the woman whose charisma and no-nonsense approach to politics helped achieve one of the most monumental landmarks in recent British history, the Good Friday Agreement.

Envy Best Documentary Series

• The Family

  

  Director:

  David Clews

  Producer:

  Beejal-Maya Patel

  Series Producers:

  Sanjay Singhal, Jonathan Smith

  Production company:

  Dragonfly

  First UK screening:

  23 December 2009; Channel 4

  A British Indian family opens its doors to viewers in a major new eight-part observational series, documenting the universal themes of family life. The Grewals are a fun-loving and lively family with three generations all living under one roof. For two months they were filmed by cameras placed in every part of their house during the most dramatic and exciting months of their lives.

• 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.

• Ross Kemp: Middle East

  

  Director:

  Olly Lambert

  Producers:

  Olly Lambert, Tom Watson

  Executive Producers:

  Ross Kemp, Clive Tulloh, Celia Taylor

  Production company:

  Tiger Aspect, Mongoose Productions

  First UK screening:

  3 January 2010; Sky1 HD, Sky1

  Following on from his BAFTA-nominated reports in Kenya and from the front line in Helmand province Ross Kemp travelled to Israel and Gaza to explore a conflict which shapes our world yet remains largely misunderstood. With unprecedented access to all sides, this two-part series offered a unique insight into life in Gaza post Operation Cast Lead and detailed what it’s like to live under the threat of terrorist attack in cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, exploring the mindset of the men behind the violence, whilst highlighting the experiences of those trapped in the middle.

• Welcome to Lagos

  

  Directors:

  Gavin Searle, Will Anderson

  Series Producer:

  Will Anderson

  Executive Producer:

  Andrew Palmer

  Production company:

  KEO films

  First UK screening:

  15 April 2010; BBC Two

  Welcome to Lagos is an observational documentary series shot in the slums of Lagos, the fastest growing megacity in the world. Now that more than 50% of the world’s population live in cities, this series explores what life is like for people at the bottom of the urban pile. It uncovers extraordinary resourcefulness, resilience and humour in the midst of some of the most extreme living conditions imaginable.

Best Cinema Documentary

• The End of the Line

  

  Director:

  Rupert Murray

  Producers:

  Claire Lewis, George Duffield

  Executive Producers:

  Christo Hird, Chris Gorell Barnes, Jess Search

  Production company:

  Arcane Pictures, Calm Productions, Dartmouth Films

  First UK screening:

  8 June 2009; General theatrical release

  The End of the Line, is the world’s first major feature documentary about the devastating impact overfishing has had and is having on our oceans. The film provides a dramatic expose of those in power who are taking advantage of the seas with catastrophic consequences on the world’s fish supplies.

• Enemies of the People

  

  Directors/producers:

  Rob Lemkin, Thet Sambath

  Executive Producers:

  MIke Wang, Rob Lemkin, Sandra Whipham

  Production company:

  Old Street Films

  First UK screening:

  21 March 2010; Human Rights Watch Film Festival

  The Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million people in the late 1970s. Yet the Killing Fields of Cambodia remain unexplained. Until now. Enter Thet Sambath, an unassuming, yet cunning, investigative journalist who spends a decade gaining the trust of the men and women who perpetrated the massacres. Sambath obtains ground-breaking and shocking testimony never before seen or heard. For the first time, we come to understand the real story of Cambodia's tragedy.

• 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.

• 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

• Letters to Angola

  

  Directors:

  Lauren Muchan, Joe Sharp

  Producer:

  Chris Morris

  Writers:

  Lauren Muchan, Herman Wallace, Linda Carmichael

  Production company:

  IFSW

  First UK screening:

  12 February 2010; Ffresh Festival

  A documentary story of an unlikely friendship between a young British girl and a southern American Black Panther, who has been incarcerated in solitary confinement in Angola Prison Louisiana, for 37 years.

• A Miracle in West Brom

  

  Director/producer:

  Billy Dosanjh

  Production company:

  National Film & Television School

  First UK screening:

  24 February 2010; BFI Southbank, London

  This is a film about my parents. My mother, a housewife for 30 years; and my father, owner of a car salvage yard. After recent events I was led deeper into their marriage than I’ve ever been before. For the first time I’ve asked questions hoping to make peace with history.

• 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.

• Storyville: The Baby and the Buddha

  

  Director:

  Nati Baratz

  Producers:

  Ilil Alexander, Arik Bernstein

  Executive Producers:

  Jo Lapping, Nick Fraser

  Production company:

  Samsara Films Ltd

  First UK screening:

  18 May 2009; BBC Four

  Nati Baratz's documentary chronicles a former disciple's search for his reincarnated Tibetan master. Visually stunning, emotionally gripping and shot over the course of four years, The Baby and the Buddha follows a sacred quest through the eyes of a remarkable attendant.

Trustees' Award

• 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."