British Documentary Awards Reveals 50th Anniversary Shortlist

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The Grierson Trust has unveiled the shortlist for the 50th anniversary British Documentary Awards in association with All3Media.

“As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our awards, this amazing array of films from around the world is the perfect way to highlight the pivotal role documentary plays in our cultural life,” said Lorraine Heggessey, chair of The Grierson Trust. “The varied and engaging shortlist represents some of the most outstanding and impactful factual programs screened in the past 12 months and the dynamic creative talent that brought them to our screens.

“I’m also pleased that the 2022 presenter shortlist is our most diverse yet, demonstrating real change happening within the industry, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes as we work towards greater inclusivity and better representation of all sections of society,” added Heggessey. “The Grierson Trust has long been committed to nurturing new talent and bringing fresh voices to factual programming.”

The 120 shortlisted films and eight presenters, including Jay Blades, Joe Lycett, Jamie MacDonald and Jamie O’Leary, will now go forward to final nominations and judging ahead of the awards ceremony on November 10.

The BBC tops the shortlist with 42 entries overall. Netflix has 14 films in the running; Channel 4 has 12; Sky, nine and ITV, seven. Apple TV+ and Prime Video have five films each, Disney+ has three and National Geographic two. Al Jazeera, Channel 5, guardian.com, ecoflix.com and Discovery all have one each, while the remainder is made up of festival and university screenings alongside theatrical releases.

The Best Presenter shortlist includes Alice Levine for Sex Actually with Alice Levine, Amol Rajan for The Princes and the Press, Ashley Banjo for Ashley Banjo: Britain in Black & White, Ellie Simmonds for Ellie Simmonds: A World Without Dwarfism?, Jamie MacDonald and Jamie O’Leary for Blind Ambition, Jay Blades for Jay Blades: Learning to Read at 51, Joe Lycett for Joe Lycett vs the Oil Giant and Sathnam Sanghera for Empire State of Mind.

The Grierson Hero of the Year Award will be presented to an individual judged by the Trustees to have made a positive impact within the industry during the previous 12 months. The recipient of the BBC Grierson Trustees’ Award is chosen by the Grierson Board and recognizes an outstanding contribution to the art or craft of the documentary.

Up for the best single documentary (domestic) award are Grenfell: The Untold Story (BBC Studios; Channel 4), Hunting the Essex Lorry Killers (Expectation; BBC), Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story (Passion Pictures, Ventureland, AGC Studios, CNN Films, BBC Arts; BBC), The Last Mountain (Dorothy St Pictures, Uppercut Films, Globus Pictures; BBC), Mothers of the Revolution (Universal Pictures Content Group; theatrical release), Nikki Grahame: Who Is She? (Angel Eye Media; Channel 4), Panorama: The Post Office Scandal (BBC Panorama; BBC) and A Space in Time (Salon Pictures in association with BFI, Bohemia Media, Reservoir Docs, BondIt, Buffalo 8; Prime Video).

The best single documentary (international) shortlist features 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room (Wish/Art Films; BBC), Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes (Top Hat Productions; Sky Documentaries), Dying to Divorce (Dying to Divorce Ltd, Aldeles; Sky Documentaries), Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11 (Yard 44 & NBC News Studios; Sky Documentaries), My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan (Seventh Art Productions; ITV), President (Final Cut for Real, Louverture Films, Sant, Usant; BBC), The Reason I Jump (MetFilm Production, The Ideas Room, Runaway Fridge; Disney+) and Writing with Fire (Black Ticket Films; BBC).

On the best current affairs documentary shortlist are Al Jazeera Investigations—The Men Who Sell Football (Al Jazeera; Al Jazeera), BBC Africa Eye—Black Axe (BBC Africa Eye; BBC), Dispatches—Torn Apart: Family Courts Uncovered (Candour Productions; Channel 4), Dispatches—Rape: Who’s on Trial? (Hardcash Productions, Channel 4), Exposure—Afghanistan: No Country for Women (Quicksilver Media; ITV), Four Hours at the Capitol (Amos Pictures; BBC), The Missing Children (True Vision, Nevision; ITV) and Navalny (CNN Films and HBO Max in association with Fishbowl Films, RaeFilm Studios, Cottage M; BBC).

Shortlisted for the best arts documentary award are The Andy Warhol Diaries—Shadows: Andy & Jed (Abstract Submarine; Netflix), imagine… Marian Keyes: My (not so) Perfect Life (BBC Studios; BBC), Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story (Passion Pictures, Ventureland, AGC Studios, CNN Films & BBC Arts; BBC), Lily Topples the World (Wheelhouse Creative, Altan Films, A discovery+ Original; Discovery+), Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It (Universal Pictures Content Group; iTunes/Prime Video), Salt, by Selina Thompson (Milk and Honey Productions; BBC), The Story of Film: A New Generation (Hopscotch Films; Netflix) and Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust (BBC Studios; BBC).

The best music documentary shortlist includes The Beatles: Get Back—Part 3 (Walt Disney Pictures, Apple Corps, Wingnut Films; Disney+); Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (Universal Pictures Content Group; theatrical release), Dawn Raid (Universal Pictures Content Group; iTunes/Prime Video), Freddie Mercury: The Final Act (Rogan Productions; BBC), jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy—act i: VISION (A Netflix Documentary, a TIME Studios production in association with Creative Control and Leah Natasha Productions; Netflix), Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle (Willow Glen Films, BBC; BBC), The Sparks Brothers (Complete Fiction Pictures; Netflix) and Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised) (Onyx Collective, Concordia Studio, Play/Action Pictures, LarryBilly Productions, Mass Distraction Media, RadicalMedia, Vulcan Productions; Disney+).

On the best sports documentary shortlist are 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (A Netflix Documentary produced by Noah Media Group in association with Little Monster Films; Netflix), Champion Mentality: Naomi Osaka (A Netflix Documentary Series in association with Uninterrupted / A Film 45 Production; Netflix), Citizen Ashe (Dogwoof, Rexpix Media, Stick Figure Productions; BBC), Formula 1: Drive to Survive—Hard Racing (Box to Box Films—Netflix), Gazza—Episode 1 (Haviland Digital, Mark Stewart Productions, Western Edge Pictures, BBC; BBC) Gold Rush: Our Race to Olympic Glory—Revolution (Blast! Films; BBC), The Last Mountain (Upper Cut Films, Dorothy St Pictures, Globus Pictures, Universal Pictures; BBC) and Rooney (Lorton Entertainment, Circle Circle Films, Amazon Prime; Prime Video).

Up for best history documentary are 1000 Years a Slave—Episode (Uplands TV; Channel 5), The Decade the Rich Won—Episode 1 (BBC Studios; BBC), Lincoln’s Dilemma: The Anti-Slavery Candidate (EDEN Productions, Kunhardt Films in association with Apple; Apple TV+), Liverpool Narcos: Ecstasy (Blast! Films; Sky Documentaries), Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11 (Yard 44 & NBC News Studios; Sky Documentaries), Michael X: Hustler, Revolutionary, Outlaw (BBC Studios; Sky Documentaries), The Missing Children (True Vision & Nevision, ITV) and Uprising—Episode 1 (Rogan Productions, Lammas Park, Turbine Studios; BBC).

Competing for the best science documentary award are AstraZeneca: A Vaccine for the World? (BBC Current Affairs; BBC), Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet (A Netflix Original Documentary, a Silverback Films Production in association with Indikate Productions; Netflix), Dementia & Us—Episode 1 (RDF; BBC), Jay Blades: Learning to Read at 51 (Hungry Jay Media; BBC), Neutrino: Hunting the Ghost Particle (Windfall Films; BBC), Positive—Episode 2 (Arrow Pictures; Sky Documentaries), Return to Space (A Netflix Documentary, a Little Monster Films Production; Netflix) and A Year in the Ice: The Arctic Drift (Wild Blue Media, UFA Show & Factual, Fremantle Media; Channel 4).

Shortlisted for best natural history or environmental documentary are Becoming Cousteau (National Geographic Documentary Films, Story Syndicate, The Cousteau Society, Ace Content & Diamond Docs; National Geographic), Fathom (Apple in association with Sandbox Films, Impact Partners, Walking Upstream Pictures, Back Allie Entertainment, Hidden Candy; Apple TV+), Free Billy (Fresh Start Media; ecoflix.com), The Green Planet: Tropical Worlds (PBS, bilibili, ZDF, China Media Group CCTV9, France Télévisions; BBC), Joe Lycett Vs the Oil Giant (Rumpus Media; Channel 4), Life at 50°C (BBC News Arabic; BBC), My Garden of a Thousand Bees (Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films; Sky Nature) and Prehistoric Planet: Coasts (BBC Studios in association with Apple; Apple TV+).

The titles up for best entertaining documentary include Bad Boy Chiller Crew—Episode 4 (Rogo Productions; ITV), Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story—Episode 1 (BBC Studios; BBC), Curse of the Chippendales—Episode 1: Take It Off (A Lightbox production—Amazon Prime Video with Discovery, Inc & Media Finance Capital; Prime Video), High: Confessions of an Ibiza Drug Mule—Episode 1 (Blast! Films; BBC), This Is Joan Collins (Salon Pictures; BBC), The Tinder Swindler (A Netflix Documentary, a Raw Production with Gaspin Media, AGC Studios in association with VG; Netflix), ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Dorothy St Pictures; Apple TV+) and Yorkshire Midwives on Call—Episode 1 (Candour Productions; BBC).

The best constructed documentary series shortlist features Anyone Can Sing (Factory Films; Sky Arts), Celebrity Hunted (Shine TV; Channel 4), The Dog House (Five Mile Films; Channel 4), Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star (Wall to Wall Media; BBC), Idris Elba’s Fight School (Workerbee & Green Door; BBC), Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace (Wall to Wall Media; ITV), Love on the Spectrum (Northern Pictures; Netflix) and We Are Black and British (Cardiff Productions; BBC).

Competing for best documentary series 9/11: One Day in America (72 Films; National Geographic), Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution (BBC Studios; BBC), Gazza (Haviland Digital, Mark Stewart Productions, Western Edge Pictures, BBC; BBC), jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy (A Netflix Documentary, a TIME Studios Production in association with Creative Control, Leah Natasha Productions; Netflix), Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime (Blast! Films; Channel 4), The Line: Quiet Professionals (A Jigsaw Production in association with Apple; Apple TV+), The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman (A Netflix Documentary Series, a RAW Production; Netflix) and Uprising (Rogan Productions, Lammas Park & Turbine Studios; BBC).

In the best cinema documentary award, the shortlist includes Becoming Cousteau (National Geographic Documentary Films, Story Syndicate, The Cousteau Society, Ace Content & Diamond Docs—theatrical release), The First Wave (National Geographic Documentary Films, Neon, Participant, Our Time Projects; theatrical release), Navalny (CNN Films and HBO Max in association with Fishbowl Films, RaeFilm Studios, Cottage M; theatrical release), Procession (A Netflix Documentary, a 4th Row Films Production in Partnership with Concordia Studios & Impact Partners in association with Artemis Rising Foundation; theatrical release); The Reason I Jump (MetFilm Production, The Ideas Room & Runaway Fridge, theatrical release), Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised) (Onyx Collective, Concordia Studio, Play/Action Pictures, LarryBilly Productions, Mass Distraction Media, RadicalMedia & Vulcan Productions, theatrical release), The Velvet Underground (An Apple Original Film in association with Polygram Entertainment, Motto Pictures, Killer Films, Federal Films (theatrical release) and Young Plato (Soilsiú Films, Aisling Productions, Clin d’Oeil Films, Céline Nusse; theatrical release).

Among those selected for the best student documentary shortlist are Daughters of the Sea (London College of Communication; University/College Screening), Don’t Feed the Psychic (University of Westminster; University/College Screening), Harvesting Our Tea (London College of Communication; University/College Screening), It’s Bean Too Hot (Falmouth University; YouTube), Ordinary Life (Newcastle University; University/College Screening), The State of Dissent (London College of Communication; University/College Screening), Ten by Ten (University of Manchester; University/College Screening) and Traded (University of Greenwich; University/College Screening).

On the best documentary short shortlist are The Bayview (MTP; London Short Film Festival Forest Coal Pit (ie ie productions; Borderlines Film Festival), Freedom Swimmer (No-Thing Productions & Sacrebleu Productions; theatrical release), Hanging On (Cosmosquare Films; festival release), Nsenene (Medina Films; New Yorker), Prosopagnosia (Bombito Productions; Edinburgh International Film Festival); Saintmaking (The Guardian; theguardian.com) and Three Songs—Benazir (A Netflix Documentary; Netflix).

The final nominations will be announced on September 21.