Watson Gets Top Accolade At Grierson Awards

The winners of the Grierson Trust awards have been announced at a star-studded ceremony at Savoy Place in central London.
The awards presented by Nick Ross recognise the best in documentary filmmaking.
Chairperson, Jenny Barraclough said: “Last year was a bumper year for some extraordinary documentary filmmaking. The odd thing is that despite concerns about budgets and commissioning, every year the standard gets better and better. The winning films are outstanding.”
Veteran film-maker Paul Watson won Best Documentary On A Contemporary Issue for ‘Rain in My Heart’, a BBC 2 film about alcoholics in Kent.
He was also given the Grierson trustees’ award for “outstanding contribution to the art of documentary film-making.”
Watson has worked for both the BBC and Granada before founding his own production company, Priory Pictures, in 2003. His career spans 35 years, he has made over 300 films and has won both Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, as well as receiving BAFTA and Grierson Trust nominations.
Other winners included ‘Consent’ produced by Katie Bailiff for Best Drama Documentary. The Bloomberg Best Newcomer was won by Sonja Linden for ‘No Man is an Island’.
The Grierson Awards established in 1972, commemorate the pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson (1898 – 1972), famous for ‘Drifters’ and ‘Night Mail’.
They are Britain’s only awards dedicated to film and television documentary.
For the full list of awards visit:
www.griersontrust.org
(DS)