The Sheffield International Documentary Festival, the UK’s premier event for international documentary professionals, will present an Audience Award at this year’s festival. This inaugural award, which will celebrate the documentary with the most audience votes, will be chosen from the one hundred or so international films to be screened at Doc/Fest 2008.
Heather Croall, Festival Director, comments: “There are loads of awards at film festivals around the world, and many of the jury-driven awards are incredibly prestigious. However, often it is the Audience Award at a festival that filmmakers love to take away – a strong endorsement from those people who matter most: the audience.
“Last year, The English Surgeon was voted the most popular film with audiences in the Sheffield Doc/Fest survey, and it went on to be a worldwide success. We hope the Doc/Fest Audience Award 2008 will indicate the same ongoing success for this year’s winner.”
As well as recognizing the winner of the Audience Award, who will be announced after the festival, Doc/Fest will announce three Grierson:Sheffield Award winners for 2008, at the Awards Ceremony taking place on Friday 7 November.

The Grierson:Sheffield Awards recognise various categories including a Green Award celebrating films that explore environmental issues, or make a contribution to the climate change debate. This award also pays tribute to films that have been made in an environmentally-friendly way and adhere to Green Code Guidelines (http://greencodeproject.org).

The Grierson:Sheffield Innovation Award commends a documentary that exhibits innovation in format, style, technique or content. The award is open to all forms of documentary, including long form theatrical, one-hour TV doc, a project delivered online or a multi-platform project. Documentaries in this category will demonstrate an outstandingly brave approach to a production or subject.

Entrants for the Green and Innovation Awards are asked to provide a 50 word description on how their documentary meets either of these criteria. A short list of four films will be selected, and will be available to view in the videotheque during the festival.

The Grierson:Sheffield Youth Jury Award will be given to a film that is engaging to young audiences, and will be chosen by a specially selected panel of 16-21 year olds. The panel, chaired by Emma Hindley of The Grierson Trust, will be chosen from twelve hopefuls who are attending a bespoke HotHouse, where they will get a unique insight into the documentary business alongside industry professionals.

Murray Weston, Chairman of The Grierson Trust, comments: “The Youth Jury Award was created last year by The Grierson Trust and Sheffield Doc/Fest to encourage young people to engage with documentaries by involving them in the process of judging films and awarding a prize. The process is designed to excite, inspire and encourage young people to involve themselves in the future of factual film-making - in all its forms.”

The winners of this year’s Doc/Fest pitch competitions will be announced at the Celebration Party on Saturday 8 November.

For full details on the awards visit www.sheffdocfest.com or www.griersontrust.org.