17/06/2024 - Maja Novaković’s exploration of an isolated man has garnered the Grand Jury Award, while the UK flick The Boy and the Suit of Lights scooped the First Feature Prize

The 31st edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest drew to a close this Sunday with the festival, based in the North of England, revealing its winners during its traditional award ceremony.

The Grand Jury Award for the International Competition was presented to Maja Novaković’s At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking [+see also:
film review
interview: Maja Novaković
film profile] (Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina). The film is a meditation on isolation and loss, and the jury commented: “With cinematic excellence, the director slowly reveals a story of isolation and trauma in a landscape of beauty yet deep historical scars. An emerging director to watch.”

The jury consisted of Heather Haynes (director of festival programming, Hot Docs), Mohamed Saïd Ouma (DocA-Documentary Africa executive director) and award-winning filmmaker Havana Marking.

In the International First Feature Competition, the Grand Jury Award went to The Boy and the Suit of Lights [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (UK) by Inma De Reyes, which follows a young boy living in a small Spanish town as he deals with pressures from his family to become a professional bullfighter. The jury said, “We have chosen the winning film for its visually stunning reflection on culture and society, told through the journey of a boy finding his way to manhood. It triggers an inner discussion, challenging our ideas about the modern world versus fading traditions and beliefs.” A Special Mention went to Silent Men by Duncan Cowles (UK): the jury “was impressed by the vulnerable approach to a sensitive subject, told in a fresh, open, even humorous tone”.

The International First Feature Competition jury members were Liselot Verbugge (CEO, Film Harbour), Kristine Barford (founder of Nordland Pictures) and Diego Pino Anguita (executive director of the Chilean Documentary Corporation).

The Tim Hetherington Award was presented to No Other Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
film profile] by Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal (Palestine/Norway). The award recognises movies and filmmakers that best reflect the legacy of photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington. The jury said: “Two soldiers, armed and masked, violently pin down an unarmed man as a voice shouts, ‘I’m filming you.’ This is not the only time that these words are uttered. We hear them again as a squadron of soldiers drag the journalist and filmmaker to the ground, ripping him away from his camera. Journalistic docs witness what we must not forget, erase or rewrite. This is a powerful collaboration amongst journalists from opposite sides of a political gulf, who come together to tell the story of the continued destruction of Masafer Yatta in Palestine.”

The jurors for the Tim Hetherington Award were Joan Parsons (head of Culture and Arts for Queen’s University Belfast), award-winning producer and founder of Kenyan-based We Are Not the Machine Toni Kamau, and Mariia Tsypiashchuk (Ukrainian attorney-at-law, partnerships manager of the Ukraine War Archive).

Furthermore, three pitching sessions took place during the festival for selected emerging directors to introduce their non-fiction projects to panels of judges. The Whickers Pitch, Film & TV Funding Award, with a prize of £100,000, went to Camels of the Sea by Vikram Singh (India), and the Development Prize of £20,000 went to Replica by Chouwa Liang (China).

The judging panel comprised Jane Mote (The Whickers), Raul Niño Zambrano (Sheffield Doc/Fest), David Green (editor and director), Fozia Khan (head of Unscripted at Amazon Studios UK), Ibrahim Nash’at (filmmaker and winner of the 2023 Whickers Award) and Robin Smith (Blue Ice Docs Inc).

The Channel 4 First Cut Pitch saw five shortlisted directors present and discuss a three-minute micro-documentary on the theme “The Change”. This was won by Helen Waddell, who thus secured a commission from Channel 4 for their first 60-minute film and one month of fully paid development with an indie to support the development of their idea.

The list of award winners at the 2024 edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest is as follows:

International Competition

Grand Jury Award
At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking [+see also:
film review
interview: Maja Novaković
film profile] - Maja Novaković (Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Special Mention
Mother City - Miki Redelinghuys, Pearlie Joubert (South Africa)

International First Feature Competition

Grand Jury Award
The Boy and the Suit of Lights [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Inma De Reyes (UK)
Special Mention
Silent Men - Duncan Cowles (UK)

International Short Film Competition

Grand Jury Award
Flowers - José Cardoso (South Africa/Ecuador)
Special Mention
Dancing Palestine - Lamees Almakkawy (UK)

Tim Hetherington Award
No Other Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
film profile] - Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal (Palestine/Norway)

International Virtual Reality Competition
Perinatal Dreaming. Understanding Country - Marianne Wobcke, Volker Keuchelmeister, Lucia Barrera (Australia)

Youth Jury Award
HAIYU – Rebel Singer Mariem Hassan and the Struggle for a Free Western Sahara – Alex Veitch, Brahim B Ali, Mohamedsalem Uered, Anna Klara Åhrén (Sweden/Western Sahara)
Special Mention
Life on the Edge - Johnny Langenheim, Sebastian Feehan (Greenland/UK)

2024 Pitch Session Winners
Camels of the Sea - Vikram Sing (India)
Replica - Chouwa Liang (China)
Special Mention
Highness and Excellency - Sajad Imani (Iran)

Podcast Pitch First Prize
Rewriting the Narrative - Christina Hardinge (UK)

Podcast Pitch Second Prize
Degenerate - Matt Durai (Malaysia)