It was a whirlwind week on the festival circuit in the days leading up to Mother's Day, with Hot Docs, San Francisco International Film Festival and Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival all wrapping up their respective installments. Laura Poitras racked up two more honors for her film The Oath, prior to its release this past Friday--a Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at Independent Film Festival of Boston. Jeff Malmberg's Marwencol also snatched up two kudos at those respective fests: an Emerging Artist Award for Malmberg and a Special Jury Prize for his film. The film was acquired by Cinema Guild last week for a Fall 2010 theatrical release.Another multiple honoree was Lixin Fan's Last Train Home, which picked up an award for Best Invesigative Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Cinematography prize at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific International Film Festival.

1)      Awards

Hellenic Film Academy Awards (Greece)
Best Feature Documentary: There Was No Other Way (Dir.: Stavros Psillakis)

San Francisco Film Society /Film Arts Foundation Documentary Grants
Christian Bruno: Strand: A Natural History of Cinema
Strand: A Natural History of Cinema charts the rise and demise of movie-going in San Francisco while revealing the transformation of post-war urban America and examines this important aspect of collective culture by focusing on its richest period, the repertory and revival movement of the 1960s and '70s. The film integrates contemporary 16mm film, archival images and interviews with filmmakers such as Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and Walter Murch. naturalhistoryofcinema.net
 
Eugene Corr: From Ghost Town to Havana
Since the summer of 2007, Corr has followed the lives of boys growing up in the Centro Havana neighborhood, Cuba, playing baseball for coach Nicholas Reyes, and boys growing up in West Oakland, California, playing for coach Roscoe Bryant. This April, Oakland and Centro Havana players met and formed one Oakland/Centro Havana team that played against other Havana barrios. Through the prism of sports, From Ghost Town to Havana portrays the human struggle to wrest life, and even joy, from hardship and death.

Hayley Downs and Julie Kahn: Swamp Cabbage
Swamp Cabbage is a documentary about a half-Cracker (descendent of Florida pioneers known for their ability to survive in the treacherous Florida wilderness; often confused with, but unrelated to, the slur meaning ignorant bigot) stuck in Brooklyn who discovers that the bizarre backwoods-meets-suburbia Florida childhood she left behind is actually the key to her survival. The film weaves her story of love, addiction, illness, death and redemption with vérité sequences of Florida Crackers as they gig, trap, hunt, fish and cook, in close partnership with their environment, in the face of out-of-control development and suburban sprawl. Her tragicomic journey offers a new take on food, conservation and community. swampcabbagemovie.com
 
Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza: Dear Mandela
Dear Mandela chronicles events leading up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa through the eyes of three young leaders of the shack-dwellers movement whose communities face mass eviction. Filmed over two years, Dear Mandela follows the leaders from the chaos on the streets to the highest court in the land as they resist the evictions and put Nelson Mandela's promise of a better life for all to the test. dearmandela.com
 
David Weissman: We Were Here: Voices from the AIDS Years in San Francisco
We Were Here: Voices from the AIDS Years in San Francisco is the first deep and reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how the city's inhabitants dealt with that unprecedented calamity. The relentless suffering that overwhelmed San Francisco in the 1980s and '90s has given way to a kind of calm and, understandably, a degree of willful forgetfulness. The documentary explores what was not so easy to discern in the midst of it all: parallel histories of suffering and loss, and of community coalescence and growth. Despite legitimate fears of being forced back into the closet by AIDS, the gay community was in many ways greatly empowered by the challenges that the epidemic presented.
 
Honorable Mention: Tristan Patterson: Dragonslayer
Set against inland California's decaying suburban and exurban communities in the aftermath of America's economic collapse, Dragonslayer is a documentary portrait of a homeless young man who spends his days breaking into the backyards of foreclosed homes, draining the scummy water from their abandoned swimming pools and skateboarding, as a pure form of artistic expression that he refuses to compromise. On the verge of suicide, he falls in love with a 19-year-old college student who dreams of joining the Peace Corps. When she loses her childhood home, they decide to hit the road together in search of a better way of life. thesupplycompany.net

Student Academy Awards Finalists
Documentary
A'plas (Dir.: Diego Colombi: Savannah College of Art and Design)
Arresting Ana (Dir.: Lucie Schwartz; University of California, Berkeley)
Dreams Awake (Suea Despierto) (Dirs.: Kevin Gordon, Rebekah Meredith; Stanford University)
Ecoviews: Three Stories from Chesapeake Bay (Dirs.: Ted Roach, J.P. Eason; American University)
My Name Is Sydney (Dir.: Melanie Vi Levy; Stanford University)
Prayers for Peace (Dir.: Dustin Grella; School of Visual Arts)
Rediscovering Pape (Dir.: Maria Royo; City College of New York)
When I'm 64 (Dir.: Caitlin Brown; New York University)
Yizkor's Remembrance (Dir.: Ruth Fertig; University of Texas at Austin)

Webby Awards
Movies and Film:
Webby Award: The Auteurs (The Auteurs) 
People's Voice: District 9 (Trigger LLC)

Television:
Webby Award and People's Voice: Colbert Nation (MTV Networks/Comedy Central)

Best Editing: Driftless: Stories from Iowa (MediaStorm)

Best Documentary--Individual Episode:
People's Voice: In Silence: Maternal Mortality in India (Human Rights Watch)
Webby Award: Waterlife.nfb.ca (National Film Board of Canada)

Documentary--Series:
Webby Award and People's Voice: David Lynch.com Presents Interview Project (David Lynch.com)

News and Politics--Series:
People's Voice: Carbon Watch (FRONTLINE/World)
Webby Award: Held by the Taliban (The New York Times)

2)      Festivals

Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature: La tierra sin mal (The Land of No Evil) (Dir.: Anna Recalde Miranda; Paraguay)
Honorable Mention for Documentary Feature:  Which Way Home (Dir.: Rebecca Cammisa; USA)
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short: Olhos de Ressaca (Undertow Eyes) (Dir.: Petra Costa; Brazil) 
Honorable Mention for Documentary Short: Point of Entry (Dir.: Zeus Quijano Jr.;  USA)
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: Which Way Home (Dir.: Rebecca Cammisa; USA)

Docudays UA, the 7th International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (Kiev, Ukraine)
Audience Award: Football Father (Dir.: Michal Jóźwiak)
Diplomas from Creative Jury:
Long Distance Love (Dir.: Magnus Gertten; Sweden)
The Living Room of the Nation (Dir.: Jukka Kärkkäinen; Finland)
Cash & Marry (Dir.: Atanas Georgiev; Macedonia).
Grand Prix--Art Competition: Mum Died On Saturday in the Kitchen (Dir.: or Maksym Vasyanovych; Ukraine)
Diplomas from Human Rights Competition Jury:
Nine to Five (Dir.: Daniel Gal; Israel)
Sanya and Sparrow (Dir.: Andrey Gryazev; Russia)
Grand Prix--Creative Competition: BURMA VJ - Reporting from a Closed Country (Dir.: Anders Østergaard; Denmark)
The Student's Jury Prize: The Worst Company in the World, (Dir.: Regev Contes; Israel)
Andriy Matrosov Award:  Cash & Marry (Dir.: Atanas Georgiev; Macedonia).
Special Prize from the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine:  A Long Way Home (Dir.: Aleksandr Gorelik; Russia)
Special Prize from founder of the Festival - Ukrainian Helsinki Union on Human Rights: Another Planet (Dir.: Ferenc Moldoványi; Hungary)

Filmfest DC
Circle Audience Award: Soundtrack for a Revolution  (Dirs.: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturnam)

goEast Film Festival (Weisbaden, Germany)
Remembrance and Future Award for Best Documentary: Oy Mama (Dirs.: Orna Ben Dor, Noa Maiman)
Honorary Mention: Countryside 35 x 45 (Dir.: Evgeniy Solomin)
goEast Reinhard Kämpf Memorial Prize: Osadné (Dir.: Marko Škop)

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
Best International Feature Award: A Film Unfinished (Dir.: Yael Hersonski; Prods.: Noemi Schory, Itay Ken Tor; Israel)
The Special Jury Prize--International Feature: The Oath (Dir./Prod.: Laura Poitras; Prods.: Nasser Arrabyee, Aliza Kaplan, Jonathan Oppenheim; USA, Yemen)
Best Canadian Feature Award: In The Name of the Family (Dir./Prod.: Shelley Saywell; Prod.: Deborah Parks; Canada)
Special Jury Prize--Canadian Feature: Leave Them Laughing (Dir.: John Zaritsky, Prod.: Montana Berg; Canada/USA)
Best Mid-Length Documentary Award: I Shot My Love (Dir./Prod.: Tomer Heymann; Prods.: Barak Heymann, Carl Ludwig Rettinger; Israel, Germany)
Best Short Documentary Award: Tussilago (Dir.: Jonas Odell; Sweden)
HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award: Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol)
2010 Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award: Kim Longinotto
documentary's Don Haig Award: Presented to Toronto's Philip Lyall and Vancouver's Nimisha Mukerji (65_REDROSES)
The Lindalee Tracey Award: Ayanie Mohamed (Toronto)
Hot Docs Audience Award: Thunder Soul (Dir.: Mark Landsman; USA)
Canwest-Hot Docs Pitch Prize: The Fruit Hunters (Dir.: Yung Chang; Prod.: Eyesteel Film)
Interactive Mountie Hat Prize: Green to the End (Dirs.: Kim Harris, Julia Bennett; Prod.: Pink Job)
NFB Digital Development Deal: The House That Herman Built (Dir./Prod.: Angad Bhalla; Prod.: Storyline Entertainment)
Cuban Hat Award: The House That Herman Built (Dir./Prod.: Angad Bhalla; Prod.: Storyline Entertainment)
Cuban Hat--Best Commissioning Editor: Iikka Vehkalahti/YLE (Finland)

Independent Film Festival of Boston
Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature: The Oath (Dir.: Laura Poitras)
Special Jury Prize for Documentary Feature: Marwencol (Dir.: Jeff Malmberg)
Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Family Affair (Dir.: Chico Colvard)
The Karen Schmeer Award for Excellence in Documentary Editing:  Francisco Bello (War Don Don)
Grand Jury Prize for Short Film: Born Sweet (Dir.: Cynthia Wade)

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Documentary Feature: Last Train Home (Dir.: Lixin Fan)
Best Cinematography: Last Train Home (Cinematographer: Lixin Fan)
Best Director: Deann Borshay Liem (In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee)
Best Editor: Vivien Hillgrove (In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee)
Call To Action Prize:A Village Called Versailles (Dir.: S. Leo Chiang)
Audience Award for Favorite Documentary: A Village Called Versailles (Dir.: S. Leo Chiang)

New York Festivals International Television and Film Awards
There are too many winners to mention here, so for the complete list, click here.

San Francisco International Film Festival 
Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners
Investigative Documentary Feature: Last Train Home (Dir.: Lixin Fan; Canada/China)
Documentary Feature: Pianomania (Dir.: Lilian Franck, Robert Cibis; Austria/Germany)
Bay Area Documentary Feature: Presumed Guilty (Dirs.: Roberto Hernández, Geoffrey Smith; Mexico)
Documentary Short: The Shutdown (Dir.: Adam Stafford; Scotland)

Tribeca Film Festival
Previously reported:  Jury Awards
Audience Award: RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage (Dirs.: Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn)

USA Film Festival
First Place /Non-Fiction: Point of Entry (Dir.: Zeus Quijano, Jr.)
Texas Award: 6 (Dir.: Jeff Bednarz)