Most Americans (including me) were frantically finishing up their tax returns last week (I'm still at it...), but the kudos kept pouring in from all over the world. The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival concluded this weekend in Durham, NC, with Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath's Enemies of the People and Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger's Restrepo taking two honors each. ReelScreen announced its Factual Entertainment Awards nominees, and oversaw the MIPDoc Co-Production Challenge. The International Documentary Challenge announced its list of finalists, which will be screened at Hot Docs next month. And direct from online, the Webby Awards nominees and Streamy Awards and International Digital Emmy Awards winners were announced.

 

1)      Awards

 

David di Donatello Awards (Italy)--Nominees
Best Documentary:
Centravanti Nato (Dir.: Gianclaudio Guiducci)
Madri  (Dir.: Barbara Cupisti)
La Minaccia (Dirs.: Silvia Luzi, Luca Bellino)
Il Passaggio Della Linea (Dir.: Pietro Marcello)
Vogliamo Anche Le Rose (Dir.: Alina Marazzi)

 

Edward R. Murrow Awards (which honor pursuit of excellence in journalism and which are presented by the Washington, DC-based Radio Television Digital News Association)
Category: Video News Documentary
Television-Large Market
Region 1: Fugitive in the Philippines: A Western Washington Murder Mystery (KIRO-TV; Seattle, WA)
Region 2: Stampede to Oblivion (KLAS-TV; Las Vegas, NV)
Region 3: Health Care: The National Emergency  (KMGH-TV; Denver, CO)
Region 6: Under Fire (KHOU-TV; Houston, TX)
Region 7: Honor Flight Chicago (WGN-TV; Chicago, IL)
Region 8: Chronicle: Paul's Gift (WYFF-TV; Greenville, SC)
Region 9: Poison in the Air (WIAT-TV; Birmingham, AL)
Region 10: Project Dropout (WGBH-TV; Boston, MA
Region 11: Troubled Waters (WGAL-TV;  Lancaster, PA)
Region 12: Critical Condition: America's Health Care Crisis (WJLA-TV; Washington, DC)
Region 13: Our Kids, Our Schools, Our Future (WSB TV; Atlanta, GA)
Region 14: Tuesday Report: Child Abduction/Abandoned Child (TVB; Hong Kong, China)

Television-Small Market
Region 1: Outdoor Idaho: Wolves in Idaho (Idaho Public Television; Boise, ID)
Region 2: Hawaii's Saint Damien: A Journey of Sacrifice (KHON-TV; Honolulu, HI)
Region 3: Haggard: Full Circle (KRDO-TV; Colorado Springs, CO)
Region 4: Honor Flight: A Special Salute (KELO-TV; Sioux Falls, SD)
Region 5: Epic Surge (KCRG-TV; Cedar Rapids, IA)
Region 6: Possible Cure for AIDS (KOKI-TV; Tulsa, OK)
Region 7: Islands of Northern Michigan (WWTV/WWUP; Cadillac, MI)
Region 8: South Carolina's Energy Future (WCIV-TV; Mt. Pleasant, SC)
Region 11: 4 the Families (WIVB-TV; Buffalo, NY)
Region 13: Crime and the City (WMAZ-TV; Macon, GA)
Region 14: Student Ghetto (CKCO-TV [CTV Southwestern Ontario]; Kitchener, ON, Canada)

Category: Online News Operation: Video News Documentary
Grapes of Wrath (Newsok.com;- Oklahoma City, OK)
Death on Chipman Street: The Channon Christian and Chris Newsom Murders (Knoxnews.com; Knoxville, TN)

Erik Barnouw Award (presented by the Organization of American Historians):  Passage (Dir.: John Walker)

 

Factual Entertainment Awards (realscreen)--Nominees
Best One-off or Special:
Catching Cancer (Prod.: December Films; Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
JFK: 3 Shots that Changed America (Prod.: New Animal Productions; History)
The Last Beekeeper (Prod.: World of Wonder; Planet Green, Channel 4)

Non-fiction/With Recreations:
El Rescate Perfecto (Prod.: Promofilm US; Discovery Channel Latin America)
Locked Up Abroad (Prod.: RAW TV; National Geographic Channel)
The Plastic Fantastic Brain (Prod.: Stornoway Productions; Discovery Health)

Non-fiction/Without recreations:
Daredevils (Prod.:Firecracker Films; Channel 4)
The People Speak (Prods.: History, First Tuesday Media; History)
WWII in HD (Prods.: History, Lou Reda Productions; History)

Reality/Docuformat:
Gerry's Big Decision (Prod.: Gogglebox Entertainment; Channel 4)
Supernanny U.S. (Prod.: Ricochet; ABC)
The Week the Women Went (Prod.: Paperny Films; CBC)
Victorian Farm (Prod.: Lion Television; BBC Two)

Reality/Docureality:
Brick City (Prod.: Brick City TV LLC; Sundance Channel)
Deadliest Catch (Prod.: Original Productions; Discovery Channel)
How the Other Half Live (Prod.: RDF; Channel 4)
Intervention (Prod.: GRB Entertainment; A&E)

Reality/Docusoap:
Family Restaurant: The Quons (Prod.: Anaid Productions; Food Network Canada)
Gene Simmons Family Jewels (Prods.: The Gene Simmons Company, The Greif Company; A&E)
Jon & Kate Plus 8 (Prod.: Figure 8 Films; TLC)

Competition/Game:
Big in Japan (Prod.: Jarowskij; TV4 Sweden)
Keys to the VIP (Prod.: Buck Productions; Comedy Network)
Qubit (Prod.: Exploration Production; Discovery Channel Canada)

Competition/Lifestyle:
Canada's Worst Driver (Prod.: Proper Television; Discovery Channel Canada)
Project Runway Canada (Prod.: Insight Production Company; Canwest)
The Biggest Loser (Prod.: Reveille, 25/7 Productions, 3Ball Productions; NBC)
The Ultimate W Expert Challenge (Prod.: General Purpose Pictures; W Network)

Competition/Talent, Studio-based:
Battle of the Blades (Prod.: Insight Production Company; CBC)
Canada's Next Great Prime Minister (Prod.: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; CBC)
RuPaul's Drag Race (Produced by World of Wonder; aired on Logo)

Lifestyle/Design:
Steven & Chris (Prod.: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; CBC)
Style by Jury (Prod.: Planetworks Inc.; W Network)
The Day Before (Prods.: Deralf, Story Box Press; Sundance Channel)

Lifestyle/Food:
Chuck's Day Off (Prod.: Whalley-Abbey Media; Food Network Canada)
Rachel Allen: Bake! (Prod.: Cactus TV; UKTV)
River Cottage: Summer's Here (Prod.: KEO Films; Channel 4)

Lifestyle/Home:
Gutted (Prod.: Twofour Broadcast; UKTV)
Save Us From Our House! (Prod.: General Purpose Pictures; W Network)
The Lazy Environmentalist (Prod.: Free Range Media; Sundance Channel)

 

Genie Awards (Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television)
Best Feature Length Documentary: A Hard Name (Alan Zweig, Kristina Mclaughlin, Michael Mcmahon)
Best Short Documentary: The Delian Mode (Kara Blake, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre)

 

IFP Documentary Lab Projects and Fellows

25 to Life
William Brawner was infected with HIV before he turned two and kept it a secret for over 20 years. Now he seeks redemption from the women of his promiscuous past and embarks on a new phase of life with his pregnant wife, who is HIV-negative.
Fellows: Michael L. Brown (Director, Producer); Yvonne Shirley (Producer)
 
Damelo Todo (Give Me Everything)
Los Angeles bar Silver Platter is a refuge for transgender women who have immigrated from Mexico and Central America fleeing war, poverty, and prejudice. A present-day Stonewall, drag shows meet avant-garde performance artists, giving rise to new alliances and modes of resistance.
Fellows: Wu Ingrid Tsang (Writer, Director); Felix Endara (Producer); Suzanne Mejean (Editor)
 
Dear Mandela
South Africa promised to eradicate the slums by 2010 in time for the Soccer World Cup. Three extraordinary young slum dwellers journey from the chaos on the streets to the highest court in the land to join their communities in resisting mass evictions. Their efforts unleash a deadly backlash, putting Mandela's promise of a "better life for all" to the test.
Fellows: Dara Kell (Director, Producer, Editor); Christopher Nizza (Director, Editor)
 
Fambul Tok
This insider's view of an unprecedented post-conflict forgiveness program enters the lives of offenders who confess to crimes, and victims who forgive them, beginning together the process of reconciliation.
Fellows: Sara Terry (Director, Producer); Brian Singbiel (Editor)
 
Give Up Tomorrow
Simultaneously a murder-mystery and an exposé of endemic corruption in the post-Marcos Philippines, Give Up Tomorrow looks intimately at the case of Paco Larrañaga, a young Spanish mestizo sentenced to death for the abduction, rape, and murder of two Chinese-Filipino sisters on the island of Cebu.
Fellows: Michael Collins (Director, Producer); Marty Syjuco (Producer); Sara Kiener (Outreach Director)
 
Our School
The film follows three Roma children--Alin, Beniamin and Dana--strugling to break down the barriers of segregation as they move from a dead-end segregated school into a mainstream school where they will learn together with Romanians.
Fellows: Mona Nicoara (Director, Producer); Miruna Coca-Cozma (Director); Erin Casper (Editor)
 
The Patron Saints
A disquieting and at times surrealistic exploration of an assisted living facility. Bound by first-hand ruminations of Jim, the nursing home's youngest and recently disabled resident, the film is a revealing portrait of the changing nature of bodies and minds.
Fellows: Brian Cassidy (Director, Producer, DP, Editor); Melanie Shatzky(Director, Producer, DP, Editor)
 
Puppet
Puppet interweaves a big picture look at the fraught history of American puppetry (its marginalization as children's theater and its sudden explosion as high art) with an intimate thread following Dan Hurlin, a downtown artist who is creating a complex puppet work about the strange life of an eccentric, Depression-era photographer.
Fellows: David Soll (Director, Producer, DP, Editor); Jared Ian Goldman (Executive Producer); Andrew Schwartztol (Associate Producer)
 
A Rubberband is an Unlikely Instrument
Walter Baker is an eccentric, multi-instrumentalist struggling to find his creative voice in New York City even as he must also bear the roles of family man and business owner. An unexpected Texas family gathering triggers deeper conflicts that find him grappling to reconcile fractured roots in the South and at home.
Fellows: Matt Boyd (Director, DP, Editor); Jason Ross (Producer); Michael Carter (Editor)
 
Salmon Dreams
A young Tlingit Indian makes a pilgrimage to remote rural Alaska to spend a summer living off the land and preparing traditional food, a winter's supply of smoked salmon. He is forced to confront the dichotomy between his history and the modern world he lives in, creating a parallel with his culture's disintegration and struggle to revitalize itself.
Fellows: Luke Griswold-Tergis (Director, Producer, Writer, DP); Maureen Gosling (Editor)

 

International Digital Emmy Awards
Non-Fiction: Virtual Revolution (BBC/The Open University; United Kingdom)

 

MIPDoc Co-Production Challenge
Winning Pitch:  The Rat Race (Dir.: Miriam Chandy Menacherry; Prod.: Filament Pictures; India)

 

Streamy Awards
Best Reality or Documentary Web Series: The Secret Life of Scientists (Exec. Prod.: Joshua Seftel; Prods.: Tom Miller, Darby Maloney; WGBH Science Unit)

 

Webby Awards --Nominees

Movies and Film:
District 9 (Trigger LLC)
IFC.com (IFC0
The Auteurs (The Auteurs)
The Institute for Common Continuity (Big Spaceship)
Waterlife.nfb.ca (National Film Board of Canada)

 

Television:
Colbert Nation (MTV Networks/Comedy Central)
Current.com (Bender/Helper Impact)
Discovery.com (Discovery Communications)
Project Runway Designer Portfolio (Lifetime Entertainment Services)
Sundance Channel (Sundance Channel)

 

Best Editing-the doc entries:
Driftless: Stories from Iowa (MediaStorm)
Ring Life (HBO Sports)
Sonicsgate(SeattleSuperSonics Historical Preservation Society)

 

Best Documentary-Individual Episode
A Schoolgirl's Odyssey (The New York Times)
Driftless: Stories from Iowa (MediaStorm)
In Silence: Maternal Mortality in India (Human Rights Watch)
Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining (Yale Environment 360)
Waterlife.nfb.ca (National Film Board of Canada)

 

Documentary-Series
Behind the Veil (globeandmail.com)
David Lynch.com Presents Interview Project (David Lynch.com)
The City Concealed (WNET.org)
The Secret Life of Scientists (NOVA/WGBH)
The Specials (Kada Films)

 

News and Politics-Series
Carbon Watch (FRONTLINE/World)
CNNMoney Reports (Time Inc.)
Globalpost: "On Location" (GlobalPost)
Held by the Taliban (The New York Times)
PBS Wide Angle's Focal Point (PBS Wide Angle)

 

 

2)      Festivals

 

Aspen Shortsfest
Best Documentary: Born Sweet (Dir.: Cynthia Wade)
Creative Consultations Awards:
Documentary(with filmmaker Greg Barker): 7:57 AM-PM  (Dir.: Simon Lelouch)

 

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Anne Dellinger Grand Jury Award: Enemies of the People (Dirs.: Rob Lemkin, Thet Sambath)
Special Jury Prize: The Oath (Dir.: Laura Poitras)
Special Jury Prize: Restrepo (Dirs.: Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger)
Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short: The Poot (Dir.: Elham Asadi)
Full Frame Audience Award: Waste Land (Dir.: Lucy Walker)
Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award: My Perestroika (Dir.: Robin Hessman)
The Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award: Enemies of the People (Dirs.: Rob Lemkin, Thet Sambath)
Honorable Mention: Restrepo (Dirs.: Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger)
Full Frame Inspiration Award: Surviving Hitler: A Love Story (Dir.: John-Keith Wasson)
Honorable Mention: Summer Pasture (Dirs.: Lynn True, Nelson Walker)
The Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights: 12^th & Delaware (Dirs.: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)
Full Frame President's Award: Book of Miri (Dir.: Katrine Philp)

 

International Documentary Challenge--Finalists (Finalists will premiere at Hot Docs on May 2, where the winners will be announced)

1. Death Goes Green
Team: The Cut Tos
City/State/Country: Portland, Oregon, USA
Genre: Nature/Environmental
Synopsis: Death Goes Green is an intimate portrait of the pioneers of the green burial movement.

2. The Four Dreams
Team: Asia Outpost
City/State/Country: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Genre: Art
Synopsis: The Four Dreams chronicles the stories of individuals in northern Thailand who's life experiences are realized, shaped, interpreted and coped with through various expressions.

3. Grounded By Reality
Team: Shed Collective
City/State/Country: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Genre: Experimental
Synopsis: Jessica is an artist who rolls hard and lives large as she creates work that documents her body's--but not her creativity's--decline.

4. Hanging Out
Team: Surge
City/State/Country: New York City, New York, USA
Genre: Social Issue/Political
Synopsis: In his own way, Paul asks us what it means to be free.

5. I Saw U
Team: Reel Grrls
City/State/Country: Seattle, Washington, USA
Genre: First Person
Synopsis: A Seattle filmmaker explores stories of dreamers who seek connections through the classifieds

6. Legend: A Film About Greg Garing
Team: Kamikaze Chickadee
City/State/Country: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Genre: Character Study
Synopsis: In his early 20s, legendary musician Greg Garing played with every country and bluegrass superstar on the Nashville Opry scene. Now, at 43, his doctors give him a year to live and he's forced to come to terms with the secret he's kept all his life.

7. Life Is But A Dream...
Team: Flash Frame Film & Video Network
City/State/Country: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Genre: Sports
Synopsis: Charlie Wilkins is going to write a new book, if he survives his next adventure of rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic in 30 days.

8. Lynching, America's Nightmare
Team: Media Bridges
City/State/Country: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Genre: Historical
Synopsis: A history on lynching in America.

9. Old Radicals
Team: Noonday Films
City/State/Country: Columbus, Ohio, USA
Genre: Social Issue/Political
Synopsis: A story of a radical grandfather who risked his life working for peace, and the deeply personal consequences of his courage.

10. Oneironauts
Team: VIEWMASTER
City/State/Country: Athens, Greece
Genre: Experimental
Synopsis: Filmed itself like a dream, this short documentary gives us a snap insight of what dreams are.

11. Tami Tushie's Toys
Team: Minnesota Docuclubbers
City/State/Country: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Genre: Character Study
Synopsis: A Minnesota mom does something she never thought she would do.

12. Walk Across America
Team: A4 Creative
City/State/Country: Mountlake Terrace, Washington, USA
Genre: Character Study
Synopsis: Seventy-four year old Bruce Maynard builds a solar powered baby stroller to accompany him on a walk across America.