90-403: Grierson: The British Documentary Awards , commonly known as The Grierson Awards , are awards bestowed by The Grierson Trust to recognise innovative and exciting documentary films , in honour of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson . The inaugural award was given in 1972 and since then the awards have become an annual fixture. In 2000, The Grierson Trust forged a link with
180-591: A Metropolis (dir. Walter Ruttmann , 1927); Man with a Movie Camera (dir. Dziga Vertov , 1929); Douro, Faina Fluvial (dir. Manoel de Oliveira , 1931); and Rhapsody in Two Languages (dir. Gordon Sparling , 1934). A city symphony film, as the name suggests, is most often based around a major metropolitan city area and seeks to capture the life, events and activities of the city. It can use abstract cinematography (Walter Ruttman's Berlin ) or may use Soviet montage theory (Dziga Vertov's, Man with
270-421: A Movie Camera ). Most importantly, a city symphony film is a form of cinepoetry , shot and edited in the style of a " symphony ". The European continental tradition ( See: Realism ) focused on humans within human-made environments, and included the so-called city symphony films such as Walter Ruttmann's, Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (of which Grierson noted in an article that Berlin, represented what
360-429: A Summer ( Jean Rouch ), Dont Look Back ( D. A. Pennebaker ), Grey Gardens ( Albert and David Maysles ), Titicut Follies ( Frederick Wiseman ), Primary and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (both produced by Robert Drew ), Harlan County, USA (directed by Barbara Kopple ), Lonely Boy ( Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor ) are all frequently deemed cinéma vérité films. The fundamentals of
450-630: A bigger and better future for the film industry in the UK. As the first-ever comprehensive training strategy for the British film industry, it was launched in September 2003. First Light , a digital short filmmaking scheme that offered children and young people more opportunities to participate in and learn about filmmaking. FILMCLUB , free to all state after school programmes in England, FILMCLUB opened
540-527: A broader perspective, as a reaction against studio-based film production constraints. Shooting on location, with smaller crews, would also happen in the French New Wave , the filmmakers taking advantage of advances in technology allowing smaller, handheld cameras and synchronized sound to film events on location as they unfolded. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are important differences between cinéma vérité ( Jean Rouch ) and
630-630: A documentary should not be); Alberto Cavalcanti's, Rien que les heures; and Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera . These films tend to feature people as products of their environment, and lean towards the avant-garde. Dziga Vertov was central to the Soviet Kino-Pravda (literally, "cinematic truth") newsreel series of the 1920s. Vertov believed the camera – with its varied lenses, shot-counter shot editing, time-lapse, ability to slow motion, stop motion and fast-motion – could render reality more accurately than
720-437: A form of journalism, advocacy, or personal expression. Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. Single-shot moments were captured on film, such as a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work. These short films were called "actuality" films; the term "documentary" was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as those made by Auguste and Louis Lumière , were
810-515: A major battle and re-enact scenes to film them. The propagandist tradition consists of films made with the explicit purpose of persuading an audience of a point. One of the most celebrated and controversial propaganda films is Leni Riefenstahl 's film Triumph of the Will (1935), which chronicled the 1934 Nazi Party Congress and was commissioned by Adolf Hitler . Leftist filmmakers Joris Ivens and Henri Storck directed Borinage (1931) about
900-437: A minute or less in length, due to technological limitations. Examples can be viewed on YouTube. Films showing many people (for example, leaving a factory) were often made for commercial reasons: the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment, the film showing them. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight . Using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented
990-506: A more poetic aesthetic approach to documentary. Examples of their work include Drifters (John Grierson), Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright), Fires Were Started , and A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings). Their work involved poets such as W. H. Auden , composers such as Benjamin Britten , and writers such as J. B. Priestley . Among the best known films of the movement are Night Mail and Coal Face . Calling Mr. Smith (1943)
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#17327830062181080-453: A practice without clear boundaries". Early documentary films, originally called " actuality films ", briefly lasted for one minute or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length and to include more categories. Some examples are educational , observational and docufiction . Documentaries are very informative , and are often used within schools as a resource to teach various principles . Documentary filmmakers have
1170-436: A responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic. Social media platforms (such as YouTube ) have provided an avenue for the growth of the documentary- film genre . These platforms have increased the distribution area and ease-of-accessibility. Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski was among those who identified the mode of documentary film. He wrote two of
1260-469: A return to an in-person event. The eligibility window was for documentaries that had their first UK screening between 1 June 2020 and 31 May 2021. Best Cinema Documentary was not awarded for the first time since 2003, but two new categories were introduced, Best Sports Documentary and Hero of the Year, whilst the award for Best Arts and Music Documentary was split into two separate awards. The eligibility window
1350-576: A two-stage judging process, with each individual entry reviewed by a minimum of three members of the Trust. A long list of eight nominees for each category is drawn up; then the contenders are judged by five-person juries, drawn from documentary makers, broadcasters and subject experts. The jurors then decide on the final four shortlisted nominations, and subsequently the winner for each category. The judges look for evidence of quality, integrity, creativity, originality and overall excellence. They also consider
1440-514: A wordless meditation on wartime Britain. From 1982, the Qatsi trilogy and the similar Baraka could be described as visual tone poems, with music related to the images, but no spoken content. Koyaanisqatsi (part of the Qatsi trilogy ) consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. Baraka tries to capture
1530-565: A £500,000 fund to help expand the activities of film clubs, societies community groups and mobile film exhibitors in order to improve viewing opportunities for audiences in rural areas across the UK that might not be able to support a full-time cinema. The Digital Screen Network (set up in 2005 by the UK Film Council and the Arts Council England) – a £12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across
1620-478: Is a registered UK charity that exists to celebrate the best factual and documentary filmmaking from both the UK and globally. The trust also nurtures factual TV talent via training and mentoring schemes. Since its inception it has had nine chairs: In 2022, to mark its fiftieth anniversary, the Trust published its 50 must-see documentaries since its inception in 1972. As of 2023, the Grierson Awards employ
1710-474: Is a separate area. Pathé was the best-known global manufacturer of such films in the early 20th century. A vivid example is Moscow Clad in Snow (1909). Biographical documentaries appeared during this time, such as the feature Eminescu-Veronica-Creangă (1914) on the relationship between the writers Mihai Eminescu , Veronica Micle and Ion Creangă (all deceased at the time of the production), released by
1800-419: Is an anti-Nazi color film created by Stefan Themerson which is both a documentary and an avant-garde film against war. It was one of the first anti-Nazi films in history. Cinéma vérité (or the closely related direct cinema ) was dependent on some technical advances to exist: light, quiet and reliable cameras, and portable sync sound. Cinéma vérité and similar documentary traditions can thus be seen, in
1890-588: The British Film Institute . In 1999, Alan Parker was appointed as the chairman of the Film Council, with Stewart Till as the vice-chairman. Till became chairman after Parker left. In its own words, the aim of the UKFC was: To stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture, and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout
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#17327830062181980-670: The Bucharest chapter of Pathé . Early color motion picture processes such as Kinemacolor (known for the feature With Our King and Queen Through India (1912)) and Prizma Color (known for Everywhere With Prizma (1919) and the five-reel feature Bali the Unknown (1921)) used travelogues to promote the new color processes. In contrast, Technicolor concentrated primarily on getting their process adopted by Hollywood studios for fiction feature films. Also during this period, Frank Hurley 's feature documentary film, South (1919) about
2070-666: The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was released. The film documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914. With Robert J. Flaherty 's Nanook of the North in 1922, documentary film embraced romanticism . Flaherty filmed a number of heavily staged romantic documentary films during this time period, often showing how his subjects would have lived 100 years earlier and not how they lived right then. For instance, in Nanook of
2160-576: The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport , and governed by a board of 15 directors . It was funded from various sources including The National Lottery . John Woodward was the Chief Executive Officer of the UKFC. In June 2008, the company had 90 full-time members of staff. It distributed more than £160m of lottery money to over 900 films. Lord Puttnam described the council as "a layer of strategic glue that's helped bind
2250-497: The UK Film Council in order to expand and add prestige to the awards. The awards have grown in stature and recognition over the years. The awards trophy is in the form of a bust of John Grierson. Sculpted posthumously by Ivor Roberts-Jones , it was struck in a limited edition of 10, with three copies held by the Trust. Originally, the trophy was given to the award winner for one year before being returned and presented to
2340-884: The 1920s and 1930s. These films were particularly influenced by modern art , namely Cubism , Constructivism , and Impressionism . According to art historian and author Scott MacDonald , city symphony films can be described as, "An intersection between documentary and avant-garde film: an avant-doc "; however, A.L. Rees suggests regarding them as avant-garde films. Early titles produced within this genre include: Manhatta (New York; dir. Paul Strand , 1921); Rien que les heures /Nothing But The Hours ( France ; dir. Alberto Cavalcanti , 1926); Twenty Four Dollar Island (dir. Robert J. Flaherty , 1927); Moscow (dir. Mikhail Kaufman , 1927); Études sur Paris (dir. André Sauvage , 1928); The Bridge (1928) and Rain (1929), both by Joris Ivens ; São Paulo, Sinfonia da Metrópole (dir. Adalberto Kemeny , 1929), Berlin: Symphony of
2430-553: The Belgian coal mining region. Luis Buñuel directed a " surrealist " documentary Las Hurdes (1933). Pare Lorentz 's The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1938) and Willard Van Dyke 's The City (1939) are notable New Deal productions, each presenting complex combinations of social and ecological awareness, government propaganda, and leftist viewpoints. Frank Capra 's Why We Fight (1942–1944) series
2520-529: The Best Science or Natural History Documentary award split into two separate categories and a new award for Best Constructed Documentary Series introduced. The eligibility window was for documentaries that had their first UK screening between 1 May 2015 to 30 April 2016. The Readers' Choice Award was dropped in this year. The eligibility window was for documentaries that had their first UK screening between 1 May 2014 and 30 April 2015. The eligibility window
2610-554: The British Film Commissioner worked to ensure that the UK remained an attractive production base for international films. Activities included: encouraging and supporting international films being made in the UK; strengthening the UK's production infrastructure; promoting UK talent and product around the world; working with the UK's Government to ensure that film friendly policies were in place; and reviewing and developing international co-production treaties, allowing
2700-501: The Film Agency for Wales (now Ffilm Cymru Wales). The UKFC also part-funded the British Film Institute which champions moving image culture, education and cinema heritage to benefit as wide an audience as possible and aims to deepen and encourage public debate about film. The BFI was responsible for delivering that part of the UKFC's strategy "to help UK audiences enjoy the best of British and world cinema" . On 26 July 2010 it
2790-753: The Furnaces , from 1968), directed by Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas , influenced a whole generation of filmmakers. Among the many political documentaries produced in the early 1970s was "Chile: A Special Report", public television's first in-depth expository look at the September 1973 overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in Chile by military leaders under Augusto Pinochet , produced by documentarians Ari Martinez and José Garcia. A June 2020 article in The New York Times reviewed
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2880-547: The Humber ) and South West Screen ( South West England ). All of them, excluding Film London and Screen Yorkshire, were merged into Creative England as a result of the dissolution of the UKFC in 2010. It also funded three national screen agencies responsible for developing film, television and broadcast new media in other British countries: Scottish Screen (now Creative Scotland /Screen Scotland ), Northern Ireland Film & Television Commission (now Northern Ireland Screen) and
2970-667: The Loop (Sundance 2009); Jane Campion's Bright Star ; Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank ; Dominic Murphy 's White Lightnin' (Berlin and Sundance Film Festivals 2009); Sally Potter 's Rage (Berlin Competition 2009); Noel Clarke 's Adulthood ( BAFTA Rising Star ); Ken Loach 's The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Cannes, Palme d'Or ); Shane Meadows 's This is England (BAFTA, Best British Film); Kevin Macdonald 's Touching
3060-412: The Loop ; and Sam Taylor Wood 's Nowhere Boy , written by Matt Greenhalgh . The New Cinema Fund supported emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on innovative writing and gifted directors. The fund had £15 million of Lottery money to invest over three years and funded eight to ten feature films each year. It had a commitment to supporting work from
3150-590: The Natural World and Best Cinema Documentary were introduced this year. Also any entry which was substantially produced on photographic film was also considered for the Best Documentary on Film award. The Lifetime Achievement Award was renamed back to the Trustees' Award. All entries were required to have had a public screening or broadcast in the UK between 1 May 2002 and 30 April 2003. Once again
3240-574: The North , Flaherty did not allow his subjects to shoot a walrus with a nearby shotgun, but had them use a harpoon instead. Some of Flaherty's staging, such as building a roofless igloo for interior shots, was done to accommodate the filming technology of the time. Paramount Pictures tried to repeat the success of Flaherty's Nanook and Moana with two romanticized documentaries, Grass (1925) and Chang (1927), both directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack . The " city symphony " sub film genre consisted of avant-garde films during
3330-680: The North American " direct cinema " (or more accurately " cinéma direct "), pioneered by, among others, Canadians Michel Brault , Pierre Perrault and Allan King , and Americans Robert Drew , Richard Leacock , Frederick Wiseman and Albert and David Maysles . The directors of the movement take different viewpoints on their degree of involvement with their subjects. Kopple and Pennebaker, for instance, choose non-involvement (or at least no overt involvement), and Perrault, Rouch, Koenig, and Kroitor favor direct involvement or even provocation when they deem it necessary. The films Chronicle of
3420-465: The Penguins , and An Inconvenient Truth among the most prominent examples. Compared to dramatic narrative films, documentaries typically have far lower budgets which makes them attractive to film companies because even a limited theatrical release can be highly profitable. The nature of documentary films has expanded in the past 30 years from the cinéma vérité style introduced in the 1960s in which
3510-581: The Romanian professor Gheorghe Marinescu made several science films in his neurology clinic in Bucharest : Walking Troubles of Organic Hemiplegy (1898), The Walking Troubles of Organic Paraplegies (1899), A Case of Hysteric Hemiplegy Healed Through Hypnosis (1899), The Walking Troubles of Progressive Locomotion Ataxy (1900), and Illnesses of the Muscles (1901). All these short films have been preserved. The professor called his works "studies with
3600-597: The Scottish herring fleet, Drifters , had its premiere in 1929 alongside the first British showing of Sergei Eisenstein 's Battleship Potemkin . In 1936, he produced the celebrated Night Mail , directed by Harry Watt with script by W.H. Auden and score by Benjamin Britten . Founded as the Grierson Memorial Trust in 1972, shortly after the death of John Grierson, the Grierson Trust
3690-476: The Trust: The Green Award, which recognised documentaries exploring environmental issues or that had made a contribution to the climate change debate ; The Innovation Award , for documentaries that exhibited innovation in format, style, technique or content and The Youth Jury Award . The Youth Jury was a panel of 16- to 21-year-olds that were selected by Channel 4 and 4Talent . After 2009,
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3780-544: The UK Film Council was administered by the regional screen agencies and the national screen agencies via the Digital Shorts Scheme and Digital Nation (formerly known as Digital Shorts Plus). Features produced by the UKFC New Cinema Fund had an average Metacritic score of over 65. Films supported by the fund included James Marsh 's Oscar-winning Man on Wire ; Armando Iannucci 's In
3870-657: The UK to collaborate with other countries to make films. The UK Film Council's Distribution and Exhibition Department worked to make non-mainstream films more widely available to cinema audiences in the UK through the following schemes: The Prints and Advertising Fund – provided £2 million per year to help UK distributors produce extra prints of non-mainstream or more commercially focused British films, or to publicise films more effectively through advertising and other channels. The Cinema Access Programme (launched in 2003) – provided £350,000 to help cinemas purchase subtitling and audio-description technologies that improve
3960-534: The UK with digital projection technology to give UK audiences much greater choice. Capital funding – the Small Capital Fund (2006) provided £800,000 to help smaller cinemas meet the costs of essential building refurbishments and other improvements such as disabled access; and the Capital and Access Fund for Cinemas (2007) provided £500,000 to help cinemas upgrade their equipment and premises to improve
4050-520: The Void (BAFTA, Best British Film); Andrea Arnold's Red Road (Cannes, Jury Prize); Paul Andrew Williams 's London to Brighton ( Edinburgh International Film Festival , Best New Director); Alexis Dos Santos 's Unmade Beds (also at Berlin and Sundance 2009); and Duane Hopkins 's Better Things (Cannes, Critics' Week). The Premiere Fund invested £8 million of Lottery funding per year into mainstream, commercially driven films encouraging
4140-485: The advantage of documentaries lies in introducing new perspectives which may not be prevalent in traditional media such as written publications and school curricula. Documentary practice is the complex process of creating documentary projects. It refers to what people do with media devices, content, form, and production strategies to address the creative, ethical, and conceptual problems and choices that arise as they make documentaries. Documentary filmmaking can be used as
4230-461: The awards continued to be bestowed but no longer had any association with The Grierson Trust. Documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record ". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains]
4320-623: The awards were expanded. New categories of Best Documentary on the Arts, Most Entertaining Documentary and International Documentary were added. The eligibility window was for documentaries first screened publicly between 1 May 2001 to 30 April 2002. In 2000, with support from the UK Film Council the awards were expanded to four categories and the Trustees' Award renamed to the Lifetime Achievement Award . The best documentary selected from these four category winners went on to win
4410-446: The best documentary shown at the annual BFI London Film Festival . The awards from 2005–2016 were featured on the Trust's previous website, however it is unclear if the Trust has had any input into the selection of the winner since 2017. The winners are: During the tenure of Jenny Barraclough as Trust chair, The Grierson Trust working in conjunction with Sheffield DocFest launched Grierson: Sheffields. Three awards were sponsored by
4500-474: The camera). The American film critic Pare Lorentz defines a documentary film as "a factual film which is dramatic." Others further state that a documentary stands out from the other types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion, and a specific message, along with the facts it presents. Scholar Betsy McLane asserted that documentaries are for filmmakers to convey their views about historical events, people, and places which they find significant. Therefore,
4590-416: The cinema-going experience for audiences. FindAnyFilm.com' – the film search engine which told users when, where and how a film is available in the UK, legally and across all formats and platforms – cinema, TV, DVD & Blu-ray sale or rental, or download. The UKFC also funded: The Skillset Film Skills Fund which ensured a supply of skilled professionals in line with market demand and aims to build
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#17327830062184680-483: The cinema-going experience for people with hearing and sight impairments. The programme also provided funds to YourLocalCinema.com, the film listings website of choice for film-goers with sensory impairments, and the Film Print Provision strand, an ongoing funding initiative that helps distributors produce fully accessible film prints. The Digital Fund for Non Theatrical Exhibition (launched in 2004) –
4770-424: The closure of the UK Film Council on 31 March 2011, The Guardian reported that "The UKFC's entire annual budget was a reported £3m, while the cost of closing it down and restructuring is estimated to have been almost four times that amount." One of the UKFC's last films, The King's Speech , is estimated to have cost $ 15m to make and grossed $ 235m, besides winning several Academy Awards . UKFC invested $ 1.6m for
4860-562: The decision to close the council. Eastwood warned Osborne that the closure could result in fewer foreign production companies choosing to work in the UK. A grass-roots online campaign was launched and a petition established by supporters of the council. Countering this, a few professionals including Michael Winner , Julian Fellowes and Chris Atkins supported the Government's decision. A number of other organisations such as Save The British Film Industry responded positively. At
4950-429: The development of "reality television" that occasionally verges on the documentary but more often veers to the fictional or staged. The "making-of" documentary shows how a movie or a computer game was produced. Usually made for promotional purposes, it is closer to an advertisement than a classic documentary. Modern lightweight digital video cameras and computer-based editing have greatly aided documentary makers, as has
5040-407: The director. The commercial success of these documentaries may derive from this narrative shift in the documentary form, leading some critics to question whether such films can truly be called documentaries; critics sometimes refer to these works as " mondo films " or "docu-ganda." However, directorial manipulation of documentary subjects has been noted since the work of Flaherty, and may be endemic to
5130-452: The dramatic drop in equipment prices. The first film to take full advantage of this change was Martin Kunert and Eric Manes ' Voices of Iraq , where 150 DV cameras were sent to Iraq during the war and passed out to Iraqis to record themselves. Films in the documentary form without words have been made. Listen to Britain , directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stuart McAllister in 1942, is
5220-502: The earliest texts on cinema, Une nouvelle source de l'histoire ("A New Source of History") and La photographie animée ("Animated photography"). Both were published in 1898 in French and were among the earliest written works to consider the historical and documentary value of the film. Matuszewski is also among the first filmmakers to propose the creation of a Film Archive to collect and keep safe visual materials. The word "documentary"
5310-536: The early part of the 20th century. They were often referred to by distributors as "scenics". Scenics were among the most popular sort of films at the time. An important early film which moved beyond the concept of the scenic was In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), which embraced primitivism and exoticism in a staged story presented as truthful re-enactments of the life of Native Americans . Contemplation
5400-527: The entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States. In May 1896, Bolesław Matuszewski recorded on film a few surgical operations in Warsaw and Saint Petersburg hospitals. In 1898, French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen invited Matuszewski and Clément Maurice to record his surgical operations. They started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906,
5490-520: The films was so vital that they were often given co-director credits. Famous cinéma vérité/direct cinema films include Les Raquetteurs , Showman , Salesman , Near Death , and The Children Were Watching . In the 1960s and 1970s, documentary film was often regarded as a political weapon against neocolonialism and capitalism in general, especially in Latin America, but also in a changing society. La Hora de los hornos ( The Hour of
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#17327830062185580-533: The form due to problematic ontological foundations. Documentary filmmakers are increasingly using social impact campaigns with their films. Social impact campaigns seek to leverage media projects by converting public awareness of social issues and causes into engagement and action, largely by offering the audience a way to get involved. Examples of such documentaries include Kony 2012 , Salam Neighbor , Gasland , Living on One Dollar , and Girl Rising . Although documentaries are financially more viable with
5670-433: The great pulse of humanity as it flocks and swarms in daily activity and religious ceremonies. Bodysong was made in 2003 and won a British Independent Film Award for "Best British Documentary." UK Film Council The UK Film Council ( UKFC ) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by
5760-694: The help of the cinematograph," and published the results, along with several consecutive frames, in issues of La Semaine Médicale magazine from Paris, between 1899 and 1902. In 1924, Auguste Lumière recognized the merits of Marinescu's science films: "I've seen your scientific reports about the usage of the cinematograph in studies of nervous illnesses, when I was still receiving La Semaine Médicale , but back then I had other concerns, which left me no spare time to begin biological studies. I must say I forgot those works and I am thankful to you that you reminded them to me. Unfortunately, not many scientists have followed your way." Travelogue films were very popular in
5850-428: The human eye, and created a film philosophy from it. The newsreel tradition is important in documentary film. Newsreels at this time were sometimes staged but were usually re-enactments of events that had already happened, not attempts to steer events as they were in the process of happening. For instance, much of the battle footage from the early 20th century was staged; the cameramen would usually arrive on site after
5940-471: The increasing popularity of the genre and the advent of the DVD, funding for documentary film production remains elusive. Within the past decade, the largest exhibition opportunities have emerged from within the broadcast market, making filmmakers beholden to the tastes and influences of the broadcasters who have become their largest funding source. Modern documentaries have some overlap with television forms, with
6030-669: The involvement of British creative talent in a range of films that attracted international audiences. Funded films included Mike Leigh 's award-winning Happy-Go-Lucky ; Oliver Gerald McMorrow's Franklyn ; Christopher Smith's Triangle ; Oliver Parker 's Dorian Gray ; Stephen Frears 's Cheri ; Bob Weide 's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People ; Anand Tucker 's And When Did You Last See Your Father? ; Julian Jarrold 's Brideshead Revisited ; Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson's St Trinian's ; Rupert Wyatt's The Escapist ; Roger Michell's Venus ; Vito Rocco's Faintheart ; and Gabor Csupo's The Secret of Moonacre . The Office of
6120-665: The landmark 14-hour Eyes on the Prize : America's Civil Rights Years (1986 – Part 1 and 1989 – Part 2) by Henry Hampton, 4 Little Girls (1997) by Spike Lee , The Civil War by Ken Burns , and UNESCO-awarded independent film on slavery 500 Years Later , express not only a distinctive voice but also a perspective and point of views. Some films such as The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris incorporate stylized re-enactments, and Michael Moore 's Roger & Me place far more interpretive control with
6210-460: The many parts of our disparate industry together." On 26 July 2010, the government announced that the council would be abolished. Although one of the parties elected into that government had, for some months, promised a bonfire of the Quangos , Woodward said that the decision had been taken with "no notice and no consultation". UKFC closed on 31 March 2011, with many of its functions passing to
6300-447: The modern world; and that materials "thus taken from the raw" can be more real than the acted article. In this regard, Grierson's definition of documentary as "creative treatment of actuality" has gained some acceptance; however, this position is at variance with Soviet film-maker Dziga Vertov 's credos of provocation to present "life as it is" (that is, life filmed surreptitiously), and "life caught unawares" (life provoked or surprised by
6390-761: The moment they were ready to get production finance. There were two funding programmes, one for first-time feature filmmakers and one for established filmmakers. The First Feature Film Development Programme aimed to identify and support emerging filmmakers (e.g. screenwriters, writer/directors and writer, director, producer teams) who had not made a feature film or who had not yet had a feature film released theatrically or broadcast on UK television. Awards were made up to £25,000. The fund also offered Signature Awards to help further encourage ambitious and original filmmakers and projects. Funded films included Jane Campion 's Bright Star ; Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold 's second feature Fish Tank ; Armando Iannucci 's In
6480-545: The nations and regions of the UK. The UKFC administered and funded a range of different activities, including: The Development Fund aimed to broaden the quality, range and ambition of film projects being developed in the UK. With £12 million of Lottery funding to invest over three years, the fund aimed to build a talent-driven home for writers, directors and producers. It helped filmmakers of all experience levels develop their ideas and screenplays into viable feature films, be they fiction, documentary or animation, up until
6570-642: The nations and regions, from black, Asian and other minority ethnic filmmakers and encouraged the use of digital technology in the production, distribution and exhibition of films. It also supported over 100 short films each year through its short film schemes. Four flagship short film schemes operated nationwide: Cinema Extreme (administered by The Bureau ); the Completion Fund (administered by Maya Vision International ); The Magic Hour (administered by 104 films ); and Blank Slate (administered by B3 Media ). The remaining short film funding offered by
6660-687: The next recipient. John Grierson was a leading documentary filmmaker, and he has also been attributed to have coined the name "documentary". He was born in Scotland in 1898. Grierson was the founder of a new movement of documentary film in the 1930s. He started the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, and in 1933 the GPO Film Unit , gathering together such diverse and exciting talents as Humphrey Jennings , Paul Rotha and Alberto Cavalcanti . His ground-breaking work on
6750-494: The overall Premier Grierson Award . The eligibility window was for documentaries first screened publicly between 1 January 2000 and 30 April 2001. From 1972 to 1999, there was a single award for Best British Documentary . In 1998 an honorary Trustees' Award was introduced. The 1999 winners' ceremony was held at The Savoy Hotel in London on 23 March 2000 with Andrew Neil as guest speaker. Since 2005 an award has been given to
6840-513: The political documentary And She Could Be Next , directed by Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia. The Times described the documentary not only as focusing on women in politics, but more specifically on women of color, their communities, and the significant changes they have wrought upon America. Box office analysts have noted that the documentary film genre has become increasingly successful in theatrical release with films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 , Super Size Me , Food, Inc. , Earth , March of
6930-425: The previous year. This year saw the award for Best International Documentary and Best Cinema Documentary combined into a new Best International Cinema Documentary award. The Best Documentary Series award was replaced with a new award for Best Drama Documentary. The eligibility window was for documentaries first screened in the UK between 1 May 2003 and 30 April 2004. New categories of Best Documentary on Science or
7020-576: The steps taken by producers to ensure the best diversity and inclusion practices, as this is considered key to the integrity and quality of any documentary. Since 2020, entrants to all but the Best Student Documentary category have been required to provide a statement on diversity and inclusion. The Grierson Trustees' Award and Grierson Hero of the Year Award are honorary and not selected by the jury process. The eligibility window
7110-530: The style include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. There are no sit-down interviews, and the shooting ratio (the amount of film shot to the finished product) is very high, often reaching 80 to one. From there, editors find and sculpt the work into a film. The editors of the movement – such as Werner Nold , Charlotte Zwerin , Muffie Meyer , Susan Froemke , and Ellen Hovde – are often overlooked, but their input to
7200-432: The use of portable camera and sound equipment allowed an intimate relationship between filmmaker and subject. The line blurs between documentary and narrative and some works are very personal, such as Marlon Riggs 's Tongues Untied (1989) and Black Is...Black Ain't (1995), which mix expressive, poetic, and rhetorical elements and stresses subjectivities rather than historical materials. Historical documentaries, such as
7290-720: The world of film to school children with free DVDs for screenings, visits from film professionals and an interactive website. The UKFC funded nine regional screen agencies via its Regional Investment Fund for England (RIFE) which provided funding for production, screen commissions, cinema exhibition, training, archives and education within each English region . These were: EM Media ( East Midlands ), Film London ( Greater London ), Northern Film & Media ( North East England ), North West Vision and Media, (also known as Vision+Media) ( North West England ), Screen East ( East of England ), Screen South ( South East England ), Screen West Midlands ( West Midlands ), Screen Yorkshire ( Yorkshire and
7380-494: The year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations. Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. For scientific purposes, after 1906, Doyen combined 15 of his films into three compilations, two of which survive, the six-film series Extirpation des tumeurs encapsulées (1906), and the four-film Les Opérations sur la cavité crânienne (1911). These and five other of Doyen's films survive. Between July 1898 and 1901,
7470-687: Was a newsreel series in the United States, commissioned by the government to convince the U.S. public that it was time to go to war. Constance Bennett and her husband Henri de la Falaise produced two feature-length documentaries, Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935) filmed in Bali , and Kilou the Killer Tiger (1936) filmed in Indochina . In Canada, the Film Board , set up by John Grierson,
7560-702: Was announced that the council would be abolished; Actors and professionals including James McAvoy , Emily Blunt , Pete Postlethwaite , Damian Lewis , Timothy Spall , Daniel Barber and Ian Holm campaigned against the council's abolition. The move also led American actor and director Clint Eastwood (who had filmed Hereafter in London) to write to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in August 2010 to protest
7650-528: Was coined by Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson in his review of Robert Flaherty 's film Moana (1926), published in the New York Sun on 8 February 1926, written by "The Moviegoer" (a pen name for Grierson). Grierson's principles of documentary were that cinema's potential for observing life could be exploited in a new art form; that the "original" actor and "original" scene are better guides than their fiction counterparts for interpreting
7740-421: Was for documentaries broadcast or available to stream in the UK between 1 June 2023 and 31 May 2024. The eligibility window was for documentaries broadcast or available to stream in the UK between 1 June 2022 and 31 May 2023. The eligibility window was for documentaries broadcast or available to stream in the UK between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2022. After the previous years online only ceremony, this year marked
7830-439: Was for documentaries that had their first UK screening between 1 June 2019 and 31 May 2020. The eligibility window was for documentaries that had their first UK screening between 1 June 2018 and 31 May 2019. The eligibility window was for documentaries that had their first UK screening between 1 June 2017 and 31 May 2018. The award for Best Newcomer was replaced with an award for Best Documentary Short in 2017. This year saw
7920-476: Was for documentaries that had their first UK screening between 1 May 2013 and 30 April 2014. This year saw the introduction of awards for Best Documentary on Current Affairs, Documentary Presenter of the Year and the Readers' Choice Award. This year saw the award for Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue split into two; one for domestic productions and one of international. The award for Best Drama Documentary
8010-399: Was replaced by an award for Best Student Documentary. The eligibility window was for documentaries first screened in the UK between 1 May 2008 and 30 April 2009. The Trustees' Award was not bestowed this year. The eligibility window was for documentaries first screened in the UK between 1 May 2006 and 30 April 2007. The award for Best Documentary Series was reinstated after being dropped
8100-610: Was set up for the same propaganda reasons. It also created newsreels that were seen by their national governments as legitimate counter-propaganda to the psychological warfare of Nazi Germany orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels . In Britain, a number of different filmmakers came together under John Grierson. They became known as the Documentary Film Movement . Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti , Harry Watt , Basil Wright , and Humphrey Jennings amongst others succeeded in blending propaganda, information, and education with
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