Longinotto’s Pink Saris wins Sheffield Doc/Fest
One of the world’s top three documentary film festivals – along with Toronto’s Hot Docs and Amsterdam’s IDFA – the Sheffield Doc/Fest closed its 17th edition on Sunday.
The Special Jury Award went to Kim Longinotto’s Pink Saris (UK/India) about Sampat Pal, an Indian woman who acts as a mediator in many family dramas that unravel in the film. Longinotto also received the Inspiration Award.
A special mention was given in this category to Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia for the Light (France/Germany/Chile) about the Atacama desert, which housed the largest concentration camp for political prisoners of the Pinochet regime.
The BT Vision Sheffield Innovation Award was awarded to Clio Barnard for The Arbor [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (UK), a biography of Yorkshire playwright Andrea Dunbar. Philippe Brault and David Dufresne’s Prison Valley (France) received the special mention.
The Sheffield Youth Jury Award went to Laura Fairrie’s The Battle of Barking (UK) about the competition over London’s Barking district between the anti-immigrant British National Party and the Labour Party’s Margaret Hodge, the subject of the film, in the 2010 general election.
Gemma Atwal’s Marathon Boy (UK/USA) received a special mention in this category.
Floris-Jan van Luyn’s Rainmakers (Holland) about extreme pollution in the village of Zhenging in Southern China won the Sheffield Green Award, while Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Denmark) got a special mention.
The Sheffield Student Doc Award went to Will Woodward’s No Easy Time (UK) about Therapeutic Community, a prison programme run by the prisoners themselves in Devon.
This year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest attracted a record number of delegates, over 2000, and marks the last time it will take place in November. The next edition will be held in June 2011.