Marina Abromović: The Artist Is Present wins Sheffield Special Jury Award

Matthew Akers’ Marina Abromovic: The Artist Is Present has won the Special Jury Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest, which closed yesterday.

The documentary, which won the Panorama Award at the Berlin Film Fetsival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance, beat off competition from amongst others Alison Kalyman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Sean McAllister’s The Reluctant Revolutionary.

Jury spokesperson Carol Morley (Dreams Of A Life) said the film “becomes a performance in itself and blurs the boundaries beyond performance, filmmaking and art and questions ideas of authenticity that allow art to come alive whilst giving an insight into a world that is often closed. The jury considered it an intelligent and insightful portrait of a compelling, charismatic artist.”

The Festival’s Inspiration Award was given to British documentary filmmaker Penny Woolcock, who was attending the festival with two films – One Mile Away about British gangs and the specially commissioned From the Sea To the Land Beyond, produced by Sheffield Doc/Fest, which opened the festival.

The Sheffield Youth Jury Award was presented to Ross McElwee’s Photographic Memory.

Leanne Allison and Jeremy Mendes’ Bear 71 won the Sheffield Innovation Award, whilst the Green Award went to Michael Christoffersen and Hans La Cour’s Law Of The Jungle.

The Student Doc Award was awarded to Karen Winther’s The Betrayal. The EDA award for Best Female-Director awarded by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Inc went to Rokshareh Ghaem Maghami for Up The Stairs. The Alliance Of Women Film Journalists also award a special “Amabassador of Women’s Films” to Debra  Zimmerman, long-time executive director of New York-based Women Make Movies. 

Meanwhile, the 20^th edition of the festival next year will see the introduction of a new award – the Tim Hetherington Award presented by Dogwoof.

Tim Hetherington was the British photo journalist and director of Restrepo who was killed out in Lybia. The award will include a cash prize and will be decided by a jury including Hetherington’s mother.

Oli Harbottle of Dogwoof said; “Tim’s legacy will forever define what we do at Dogwoof and his approach will inspire filmmakers for generations to come.

Festival programmer Hussain Currimbhoy said Sheffield was the “natural home for this award. It’s right that we honour of of Britain’s great documentary filmmakers.”