The nominations for the 2006 Grierson Awards have been agreed by nine distinguished jury panels which included Nick Broomfield, Shami Chackrabarti, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Derek Malcolm, Grayson Perry, Michael Portillo, Esther Rantzen, Juliet Stevenson, Janet Suzma, Sir Charles Wheeler and Will Wyatt. The winners will be announced at the Grierson Awards ceremony which will take place at the Royal Geographical Society, London on Friday, 17th November 2006 and will be hosted Rageh Omaar. BBC Four will be transmitting the awards ceremony on Saturday, 18th November.
The nominated films are:
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON A CONTEMPORARY ISSUE
• Asylum (Peter Gordon for BBC) BBC Four
• Gaza: The Fight for Israel (Monica Garnsey for Raw TV Ltd & Israel Goldvicht Productions) Channel 4
• Women on the Edge: The Truth About Styal Prison (Rachel Coughlan for BBC) BBC Two
• A World Without Water (Brian Woods for True Vision Productions) Channel 4
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON THE ARTS
• Imagine: Andy Warhol Denied (Chris Rodley for BBC) BBC One
• The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover (Paul Yule for Berwick Universal Pictures) BBC Four
• Sinatra: Dark Star (Christopher Olgiati for Paladin Invision) BBC One
• Take That For The Record (David Norman-Watt for talkbackTHAMES in association with Syco TV) ITV 1
BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
• Elusive Peace - Israel and the Arabs (Mark Anderson and Norma Percy for Brook Lapping Productions) BBC Two
• How Vietnam Was Lost (Two Days In October) (Robert Kenner for Robert Kenner films) BBC One
• Timewatch: Pol Pot - Journey to the Killing Fields (Andrew Williams for BBC) BBC Two
• Tory! Tory! Tory! (Don Jordan for Mentorn) BBC Four
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON SCIENCE OR THE NATURAL WORLD
• Horizon: Ghost in your Genes (Nigel Paterson for BBC) BBC Two
• Life in the Undergrowth: Invasion of the Land (Peter Bassett for BBC) BBC One
• Monkey Love (Brian Henry Martin for Doubleband Films) More4
• The Natural World: The Queen of Trees (Victoria Stone & Mark Deeble for Flat Dog Productions) BBC Two
FRONTIER POST MOST ENTERTAINING DOCUMENTARY
• Censored At The Seaside: The Saucy Postcards of Donald McGill (Steve Webb for Firefly Productions) BBC Two
• Live 8: Programme One: Twenty Years Ago Today (Anna Davies for Brook Lapping Productions) BBC One
• Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares: Prog 3 - Momma Cherri’s (Christine Hall for Optomen Television) Channel 4
• Taxidermy: Stuff The World (Morgan Matthews for Century Films) BBC Two
BEST DRAMA DOCUMENTARY
• Elizabeth David – A Life in Recipes (James Kent for Wall to Wall) BBC Two
• Fantabulosa (Andy De Emmony for BBC) BBC Four
• Hiroshima (Paul Wilmshurst for BBC) BBC One
• The Year London Blew Up (Edmund Coulthard & Mark Hayhurst for Blast Films) Channel 4
BEST DOCUMENTARY SERIES
• 49 Up (Michael Apted for Granada Television) ITV 1
• Cult of the Suicide Bomber (David Batty & Kevin Toolis for Many Rivers Productions) Channel 4
• My Life as a Child (Nicola Gibson & Dermot Caulfield for BBC) BBC Two
• Russian Godfathers (Patrick Forbes for Oxford Film & Television) BBC Two
UK FILM COUNCIL BEST CINEMA DOCUMENTARY
• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Alex Gibney for HD Net Films)
• The Road to Guantanamo (Michael Winterbottom & Mat Whitecross for Revolution Films) Channel 4
• Storyville: Darwin’s Nightmare (Hubert Sauper for Mille et Une, Coop 99 & Saga Film) BBC Four
• Unknown White Male (Rupert Murray for Spectre Broadcast Ltd) More4
BLOOMBERG BEST NEWCOMER AWARD
• Astrid Bussink for Angelmakers
• Clare Richards for Disabled and Looking for Love
• Vaughan Pilikian for Hammer and Flame
• Nicki Stoker for Show Me the Money
• Sadik Ahmed for Tanju Miah
TRUSTEES’ AWARD
The Grierson Trust will also present the Trustees’ Award, which recognises an outstanding contribution to the art or craft of the Documentary. The award will be presented to Mike Salisbury, producer of many landmark series for the BBC Natural History Unit, including Life of Mammals and Life in the Undergrowth.