Grierson 2007 Nominations Announced

The nominations for the 2007 Grierson Awards have been agreed by nine distinguished jury panels which included Stephen Frears, Sir John Tusa, Tracy Chevalier, Moira Stuart, Giles Coren, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Dawn Airey, Sir Charles Wheeler, Harriet Walter, Dan Cruickshank, and Peter Taylor. The winners will be announced at the Grierson Awards ceremony which will take place at Savoy Place, London on Friday, 23 November 2007 and will be hosted Nick Ross. BBC Four will be transmitting the awards ceremony at a later date.
The nominated films in the categories are:

Best Documentary On A Contemporary Issue

• Breaking Up With the Joneses (Ursula Macfarlane and Saskia Wilson for Betty Television) Channel 4
• My Heart Belongs to Dad (Nick Poyntz for Films of Record) BBC Two
• Rain in My Heart (Paul Watson for BBC) BBC Two
• Storyville: When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee for 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks) BBC Four

Best Documentary On The Arts

• Hotel California - LA from the Byrds to the Eagles (Chris Wilson for BBC) BBC Four
• Imagine... Who Cares About Art? (Sam Hobkinson for BBC) BBC One
• Simon Schama's Power of Art: Bernini (Clare Beavan for BBC) BBC Two
• Young @ Heart (Stephen Walker for Walker George Films) More4

Best Historical Documentary

• Accused (Ricardo Pollack for Blast! Films) BBC Two
• Hungary 1956: Our Revolution (Mark Kidel for Calliope Media) BBC Four
• Jonestown The Life and Death of People’s Temple (Stanley Nelson for Firelight Media) The Times bfi London Film Festival
• No Go - The Free Derry Story (Vinny Cunningham for Open Reel Productions) BBC Northern Ireland

Best Science Documentary

• Horizon: Nuclear Nightmares (Nick Davidson for DOX Productions) BBC Two
• How William Shatner Changed the World (Julian Jones for Mentorn Productions) five
• Illegal Nature - Massacre in Malta (Alun Hughes for Cwmni Da) S4C
• Monkeys, Rats and Me: Animal Testing (Adam Wishart for Hardcash Productions) BBC Two

Jonathan Gili Award For Most Entertaining Documentary

• The Apprentice - Series 3 (ep. 6) (Alisa Pomeroy for talkbackTHAMES) BBC One
• Ray Gosling OAP (Amanda Reilly for Available Light Productions) BBC Four
• Tails From America (Cuan MacConghail for Midas) RTE
• Young @ Heart (Stephen Walker for Walker George Films) More4

Best Drama Documentary

• Bradford Riots (Neil Biswas for Oxford Film & TV in association with Great Meadow) Channel 4
• Consent (Brian Hill and Anna Maloney for Century Films) Channel 4
• Jonestown: Paradise Lost (Tim Wolochatiuk and Jason Sherman for Cineflix Productions (Jonestown) Inc., NF (Jonestown) Inc.) BSkyB
• The Last Days of the Raj (Carl Hindmarch and Mark Hayhurst for Blast! Films) Channel 4

Best Documentary Series

• Anatomy of a Crime (Lynn Barlow for BBC) BBC Two
• Banged Up Abroad (Bart Layton for Raw TV) five
• Planet Earth (Vanessa Berlowitz for BBC) BBC One
• War of the World (Adrian Pennink for Blakeway Productions) Channel 4

UK Film Council Best Cinema Documentary

• Blindsight (Lucy Walker for Robson Entertainment)
• Deep Water (Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell for APT Films and Stir Fried Films in association with Darlow Smithson Prods)
• Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog for Lions Gate)
• An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim for Participant Productions)

Bloombery Best Newcomer

• Zac Beattie for Cutting Edge: Dead Body Squad
• Nick Holt for Guys & Dolls
• Sonja Linden for No Man Is An Island
• Jonathan Goodman Levitt for Storyville: Sunny Intervals and Showers

The Grierson Trust will also present the Trustees’ Award, which recognises an outstanding contribution to the art or craft of the Documentary.
Full details of all the shortlisted films can be found on the Grierson Trust’s website at www.griersontrust.org
Major supporters of Grierson 2007 are The UK Film Council, Bloomberg and The London Film Academy.
(DS)