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Grierson Awards 2007 Winners Announced

Last Friday night saw the great and good of the British documentary scene gather at Savoy Place in central London for the annual awards ceremony from the Grierson Trust. Set up to celebrate the best in the previous year's documentary work, the awards honour in ten categories.

The winners are (with the nominated films in each category beneath them):

Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue:
Rain In My Heart (BBC Two)
Paul Watson's searing and heartbreaking film follows four alcohol abusers from the impoverished Medway Towns of North Kent. Filmed over a year, Watson's camera follows them from Gillingham's Medway Maritime Hospital to their homes.

Breaking Up With the Joneses (Ursula Macfarlane and Saskia Wilson for Betty Television) Channel 4
My Heart Belongs to Dad (Nick Poyntz for Films of Record) BBC Two
Storyville: When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee for 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks) BBC Four

Best Documentary on the Arts
Imagine...Who Cares About Art? (BBC One)
Produced by Sam Hobkinson, this
documentary tells the stories of five people who spend their days guarding great treasures in galleries and museums. Some have tragic personal stories and all began not caring or knowing much about art, but they feel that spending their days surrounded by the world's greatest masterpieces has been their salvation.

Hotel California - LA from the Byrds to the Eagles (Chris Wilson for BBC) BBC Four
Simon Schama's Power of Art: Bernini (Clare Beavan for BBC) BBC Two
Young @ Heart (Stephen Walker for Walker George Films) More4

Best Historical Documentary:
Hungary 1956: Our Revolution (Calliope Media for BBC Four). Made by Mark Kidel, witnesses to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 recall, with the help of outstanding archive, the 13 days of dramatic events during the first major uprising in communist Eastern Europe. They give a moving and vivid account of the hopes for freedom raised and then dashed after the revolt was brutally crushed by the Soviets.

Accused (Ricardo Pollack for Blast! Films) BBC Two
Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple (Stanley Nelson for Firelight Media) The Times bfi London Film Festival
No Go - The Free Derry Story (Vinny Cunningham for Open Reel Productions) BBC Northern Ireland

Best Science Documentary:
Monkeys, Rats and Me (Hardcash Productions for BBC Two)
The building of the 2 Oxford animal lab triggered the most important conflict between scientists and the animal rights movement for a century. Adam Wishart's film tells the story from all sides, including the neurosurgeon who experiments on monkeys, and the activists who still believe it is right to plant bombs and the teenage activist who created a movement.

Horizon: Nuclear Nightmares (Nick Davidson for DOX Productions) BBC Two
How William Shatner Changed the World (Julian Jones for Mentorn Productions) five
Illegal Nature - Massacre in Malta (Alun Hughes for Cwmni Da) S4C

The Jonathan Gili Award for Most Entertaining Documentary:
Ray Gosling OAP (Available Light Productions for BBC Four). For more than 40 years Ray Gosling was a successful TV and radio presenter, then the work stopped coming and his partner died. He failed to pay his taxes on time and his debt spiralled to over £90,000. He was declared bankrupt. Amanda Reilly and David Parker's film follows Ray as he sells up and settles his debts, capturing Ray's relief, regrets and his anxiety's about the future.

The Apprentice - Series 3 (ep. 6) (Alisa Pomeroy for talkbackTHAMES) BBC One
Tails From America (Cuan MacConghail for Midas) RTE
Young @ Heart (Stephen Walker for Walker George Films) More4

Best Drama Documentary:
Consent (Century Films for Channel 4). Work colleagues Becky and Steve attend a party and end up kissing in Becky's hotel room. What happens next? Here, the film shifts from scripted drama to a real courtroom setting. Everyone knows this is a fictional case but the trial is conducted as if real. Featuring a jury of ordinary people, real barristers, solicitors and a judge - the film shines a light on one of today's most hotly debated issues. Written by Anna Maloney, directed by Brian Hill and produced by Katie Bailiff.

Bradford Riots (Neil Biswas for Oxford Film & TV in association with Great Meadow) Channel 4
Jonestown: Paradise Lost (Tim Wolochatiuk and Jason Sherman for Cineflix Productions (Jonestown) Inc., NF (Jonestown) Inc.) BSkyB
The Last Days of the Raj (Carl Hindmarch and Mark Hayhurst for Blast! Films) Channel 4

Best Documentary Series:
Anatomy of a Crime (BBC-Two). Steph Aikinson's observational documentary series had unique access to the criminal justice system. From '999' to verdict, the series follows the police, forensic scientists, lawyers and barristers for the full picture of what happens to victims and perpetrators of a major crime.

Banged Up Abroad (Bart Layton for Raw TV) five
Planet Earth (Vanessa Berlowitz for BBC) BBC One
War of the World (Adrian Pennink for Blakeway Productions) Channel 4

UK Film Council Best Cinema Documentary:
Deep Water (APT Films and Stir Fried Productions in association with Darlow Smithson Productions). The stunning story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever - the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world race. Directed by Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell, with producers Al Morrow, Jonny Persey and John Smithson.

Blindsight (Lucy Walker for Robson Entertainment)
Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog for Lions Gate)
An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim for Participant Productions)

Bloomberg Best Newcomer:
No Man is an Island (Avanton Productions Oy). In beautifully composed images, Sonja Lindén tells the story of a man living alone on an island. Aside from daily phone conversations with his sick wife, and the company of his cat, he busies himself preparing for his death. A film about loneliness, love and letting go.

Zac Beattie for Cutting Edge: Dead Body Squad
Nick Holt for Guys & Dolls
Jonathan Goodman Levitt for Storyville: Sunny Intervals and Showers

The Grierson Trustees' Award - for outstanding contribution to the art of documentary film making:
Paul Watson. Now in his 60s, Paul Watson was a painter before he became a documentary film maker. He has worked for both the BBC and Granada before founding his own production company, Priory Pictures, in 2003. Spanning 35 years, his career encompasses over 300 films, and he has won both Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild awards, as well as receiving BAFTA and Grierson Trust nominations. Rain In My Heart has also just won a Prix Europa. His credits include: The Family, The Fishing Party, Sylvania Waters, The Dinner Party, The Queen's Wedding, Malcolm and Barbara: A Love Story, and Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell.

The evening was hosted by former Crimewatch front man, Nick Ross and jurors included Stephen Frears, Sir John Tusa, Tracy Chevalier, Moira Stuart, Giles Coren, Sir Jeremy Issacs, Dawn Airey, Sir Charles Wheeler, Harriet Walter, Dan Cruickshank and Peter Taylor. The awards ceremony will be broadcast on BBC Four on Wednesday 28th November.

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