FOCAL Awards 2022 Winners
/
Host sally phillips at the 2022 focal international awards.
The 19th Annual FOCAL Awards took place live and in-person last night at the Landmark Hotel in Central London. Turnout was strong, especially given the nationwide rail strike that has made travel to and from London very challenging. Comedian Sally Phillips presided over the gala event, which saw honors bestowed to some of the highest-profile documentaries of the last year. Read the full list of winners below:
Best Archival Restoration or Preservation Project or Title
Celestial’s Shaw Brothers Collection: King Boxer, which brings back the “golden age of Kung Fu movies” in “all their widescreen, garish glory, complete with mad storylines, insane fight scenes, and atrocious dubbing.”
Best Use of Footage in a History Production
Antoine the Fortunate, produced by Anemon Productions, Les Films Du Balibari, EPO-Film.
Archive Producer: Charlotte de Luppé
Best Use of Footage in an Arts and Entertainment Production
Street Gang: How we Got to Sesame Street, which offers a “glimpse into the early days of this influential and ground-breaking American children’s series,” produced by HBO Documentary Films, Screen Media, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Macrocosm Entertainment.
Archive Producer: Rich Remsberg
Best Use of Footage in a Music Production
The Sparks Brothers, which offers a “unique look at pop duo Sparks,” produced by Complete Fiction Pictures Limited.
Archive Producer and Researcher: Kate Griffiths, Tess McNally-Watson
Best Use of Footage in a Factual or Natural World Production
Playing with Sharks, which “follows pioneering scuba diver Valerie Taylor, who has dedicated her life to exposing the myth surrounding our fear of sharks.” Produced by A Wildbear Entertainment Production, National Geographic, Screen NSW, Dogwoof, TDOG.
Archive Producers/Researchers: Robyn Smith, Carl Reinecke, Lisa Savage, Natalia Mironova
Best Use of Footage in a Sports Production
Muhammad Ali, an in-depth look at the life this boxer, including his years as an activist and philanthropist, produced by Florentine Films.
Archive Producer: Stephanie Jenkins
Best Use of Footage in a History Feature
Charlie Chaplin, the genius of liberty, produced by Kuiv Productions.
Archive Producer: Aude Vassallo
Best Use of Footage in Advertising or Branded Content
Sandy Hook, ‘The Kids are Not Alright - Disappearing Act’, produced by STALKR and BBDO NY.
Best Use of Footage in a Short Film Production
Lost Connections, “a unique UK-wide collaboration of national and regional publicly-funded film archives, that draws on a century of archive footage that invites reflections on loss, loneliness, isolation, and expressions of desire, optimism, hope and renewal.” Produced by Yorkshire Film Archive with the support of 12 Curators from the regional and national film archives across the UK.
Best Use of Footage in a Cinematic Feature
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised), produced by Searchlight Pictures, Onyx and Hulu. “Part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969.”
Archive Producer: Lizzy McGlynn and Julia Lewis
Student Jury Award for Most Inspiring Use of Footage
Street Gang: How we Got to Sesame Street and Latin Noir.
FOCAL’s Student Jury Award forms part of FOCAL’s Outreach program to engage new generations with archive. FOCAL were delighted to continue their partnership with the National Film and Television School, UK for the past four years. This year FOCAL extended their relationship and were pleased to work with the students from INA Sup based in France. This gave them an exceptional opportunity to work with two sets of students based in the UK and France to see how they each reviewed and critiqued the entries.
Footage Person of the Year
Richard Watson, Head of Film and Digital Restoration at Restore Studios, who “went over and beyond his duties during the pandemic working nights in the dark room to ensure material is restored and delivered on time to clients.”
Company of the Year
Yorkshire and North East Film Archives. Operating from bases in both York and Middlesbrough, the Yorkshire and North East Film Archive is focused on “collecting, curating and creating access to [their] regions' screen heritage collections,” and has “over 70,000 items of original film, video tape, and born-digital material” under its care. A registered charity, Yorkshire and North East Film Archives have also developed award-winning products such as the Memory Bank, a reminiscence tool for older people.
Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year
Kate Griffith and Tess McNally-Watson for their work on The Sparks Brothers, a project that included over 80 studio interviews, 84 minutes of archive and over 100 music tracks to source, negotiate and contractually clear.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Brid Dooley, Head of Archives and Library services at RTÉ, who has dedicated her entire professional career spanning over 30 years to audiovisual archives.