The hugely successful, first summer edition of the Sheffield Doc/Fest wound to a close this morning as delegates began to take trains back to London and as the festival's presented it's awards in a lively ceremony at the Showroom Cinema.
And when it was all over, it was THE INTERRUPTERS, Steve James' extraordinary look at a team of gang violence preventers in Chicago, that took home the Special Jury Prize, the top award at Sheffield. It was the first major festival award for THE INTERRUPTERS, which premiered out of competition at Sundance and which received the Jury Prize from the Miami Film Festival in March (Full Disclosure: I was a member of the Miami jury, along with Sheffield Director Heather Croall).
The jury win by THE INTERRUPTERS solidifies the belief that the film will be a strong, and perhaps the leading, contender for end-of-the-year awards and honors. The film is certainly one of the best nonfiction features in recent years and a classic example of verite filmmaking that has largely been supplanted by the more constructed work of the past decade.
The Special Jury also an honorary mention to Alma Har'el's BOMBAY BEACH, which received the World Documentary Competition prize at Tribeca earlier this year. BEACH and fellow Special Jury competition title CALVET, a world premiere here, were two of the most buzzed about films at this year's festival. Other films in the Special Jury competition included AT NIGHT I FLY, Barbara Kopple's GUN FIGHT, Sundance award winner HELL AND BACK AGAIN and IDFA 2010 champ POSITION AMONG THE STARS.
The Green Award went to the much talked about (both here in Sheffield and at its world premiere at Hot Docs) YOU'VE BEEN TRUMPED, which documents Donald Trump's attempt to build a massive golf course project in Scotland. In the awards ceremony, the erstwhile birther and reality television star was called "vile" and "a fucking asshole" to much applause from the audience. Honorable mention went to Adam Wakeling's campaign film UP IN SMOKE.
Sheffield's Youth Jury gave their prize to the poetry slam doc WE ARE POETS. The Student Doc Award went to the short film, EIGHTY EIGHT.
Nick Broomfield received the Inspiration Award at this year's festival. Following the awards, I interviewed him for a masterclass session that covered his three decade-plus career. Broomfield spoke at length about his forthcoming Sarah Palin documentary, which is rumored to be debuting later this year.
More on this year's festival in the coming days.
Despite your words, trust me, Steven James will be denied an Oscar again. His work runs counter to the Academy's preferred versions of nonfiction films.
Posted by: Frank | June 12, 2011 at 09:51 AM