US artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley has been awarded the Eye Art & Film Prize for 2023. This accolade comes with a €30,000 cash prize and the opportunity to showcase her work in an exhibition at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. The Eye Prize will be officially conferred upon Bradley on Friday 10 November at the Eye Filmmuseum, as part of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

Jury chair Bregtje van der Haak, director of the Eye Filmmuseum, stated: “We are delighted that Garrett Bradley is the ninth winner of the Eye Art & Film Prize. Bradley has been awarded this prize for her courageous, visually compelling work, which takes on themes including racism and exclusion with exceptional energy. Her work is given concrete form in a mix of different media. Her (documentary) films and installations refer to topics including the history of Americans, the struggle for social justice and the political history of the United States, and make in-depth explorations of human emotions, such as rage and sorrow. Garrett Bradley is a dream winner of the Eye Prize. She works at the intersection of fact and fiction, and of film and visual art. She is both a passionate archive researcher and activist, and an exceptionally talented artist. In her work, she combines a personal aesthetic in the realm of cinematography with an unconventional experimental approach: her films and installations draw us in, challenge us, stir our souls and get us thinking about the world.”

Hailing from New York City and currently residing in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bradley is a multi-talented artist, educator and filmmaker with an Oscar nomination to her name. Bradley's creative repertoire encompasses a diverse range of filmmaking styles, including narrative, documentary and experimental approaches. Her work consistently delves into thought-provoking subjects like race, class, family dynamics, social justice and the intricate socio-political narratives that define the USA.

By blending archival material with freshly captured footage, Bradley's films coexist across the past, present and future. This approach not only disrupts our conventional sense of time, but also positions her at the vanguard of redefining cinematic concepts related to objectivity, viewpoint, truth-telling and the interpretation of American history. With her debut feature-length documentary, Time, Bradley secured the Best Director Award within the US Documentary Competition category at the Sundance Film Festival. This historic accomplishment marked her as the first black woman in the festival's history to claim this accolade. Time garnered an impressive array of prizes, receiving nominations for more than 57 awards and clinching victory 20 times, including an Oscar nomination and the 2020 Peabody Award.

Since 2015, the Eye Prize has been a coveted annual award presented to an artist or filmmaker recognised for their exceptional body of work and their extraordinary contributions to the evolving intersection of visual art and film. This year, Bradley was selected as the recipient by an international jury led by Bregtje van der Haak from the Netherlands. The other jury members included visual artist Nalini Malani; Chris Dercon, managing director of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris; filmmaker and visual artist Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese; curator and filmmaker Hila Peleg; and filmmaker, theatre director and visual artist Nanouk Leopold.