Ukraine-Themed Documentary ‘In The Rearview’ Earns Top Prize At 30th Sheffield DocFest – Full Winners List
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UPDATED from original 12:58 p.m. story with more details and full winners list: In the Rearview, Maciek Hamela’s documentary about Ukrainians fleeing war in their homeland, won the Grand Jury Award for International Competition tonight at the 30th Sheffield DocFest. [Scroll for full list of winners].
The film premiered in May at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival in Poland before heading to Cannes and then to Sheffield, where it entered competition with eight other documentaries.
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“This film started as volunteer work,” Hamela noted as he accepted the prize. “I wanted to say thank you for all the support that the U.K. has given to this amazing humanitarian effort in this war in Ukraine… [It’s] a country that has never been indifferent [to the war].
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Hamela, a Polish filmmaker, promptly volunteered to help evacuate Ukrainian civilians who had become the target of Russian bombing and artillery attacks. He bought a van for the purpose, and later began filming refugees as he transported them to safety across the Polish border. In the Rearview was shot almost exclusively inside the van, and consists of Ukrainians – young, old and in between – reflecting on all they have experienced.
In its citation for In the Rearview, the jury said, “If documentaries matter, if they are relevant and important at all, they must connect us to the lives of others. Crafted with intimacy and delicate respect, we as a jury were stunned by the brilliant simplicity of this film, which makes us all fellow passengers upon a universal odyssey of survival and exodus.”
A second Ukraine-themed film, 20 Days in Mariupol, won Sheffield’s Tim Hetherington Award, an honor named for the British photojournalist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker who was killed while covering the Arab Spring uprising in Libya in 2011.
20 Days in Mariupol documents the initial stages of Russia’s brutal siege of the Ukrainian port city, which resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. Director Mstyslav Chernov accepted the award by remote from Ukraine, where he continues to report on the war for the Associated Press. His work for the AP in Ukraine recently won him the Pulitzer Prize.
“Thank you for possibility to show this film [at Sheffield]. We are very, very happy with this news,” Chernov said in his acceptance video, which he recorded with a bombed-out building behind him. “Our team is working now on the front lines. Currently I’m in Kherson region. You can see the destruction [behind me] and I wish to say that the fact that our film won such an important festival as Sheffield makes me hopeful that the world will never forget about the struggle that Ukraine is going through, about all the loss that Ukrainian citizens, peaceful residents of Mariupol, [have] went through. And thank you for giving us a voice. Thank you for giving us your trust and we will do everything to be worthy of that trust.”
RELATED: Sundance: In Chilling ’20 Days In Mariupol’ Director Mstyslav Chernov Documents Russia’s Brutal Attack On Ukrainian Civilians
Among other awards at Sheffied, Q, directed by Jude Chehab, won the prize for International First Feature.
“Al-Qubaysiat, a women’s religious order born of Syria’s Islamic revivalist movement, has long attracted controversy over its ideology, practices and allegiances,” Sheffield programmers wrote in a description of the film. “For Jude Chehab’s family, it is a wedge that has divided loyalties and caused antagonism between those wedded to the faith and everyone else. In particular, it created an irrevocable distance between the filmmaker, her mother and her grandmother. Weaving together the memories of these three generations, Chehab’s impressive feature-length debut is a heart-wrenching portrait of a domestic environment pushed to breaking point.”
The Takeover, directed by Anders Hammer, won the International Short Film Competition. In the 35-minute long film, the Norwegian filmmaker and journalist “captures the rapidly changing situation in Afghanistan as the Taliban retake control of the country,” the festival wrote. “Re-installing an all-male parliament, banning girls from going to school and restricting women’s rights to work, the Taliban soon find themselves faced with the emergence of groups who bravely take their protests to the streets. Amid all the uncertainty, Hammer documents the female-led protests, the supporters and enforcers of Taliban rule and the mixed response of people across the country, as one regime comes to end and another takes power.”
The Short Film Competition prize automatically qualifies The Takeover for Oscar consideration. Winning the International Competition, likewise qualifies In the Rearview for Oscar consideration.
The International Alternate Realities Competition, honoring “the best innovative non-fiction work,” went to The Man Who Couldn’t Leave, directed by Singing Chen. The jury hailed “the sheer level of craftsmanship in using the form to engender palpable empathy in its audience. We applaud the level of detail employed to support the audience in the challenging position in which they are necessarily located. We engage with the story not just because it is so devastating, but because the sheer poetry of its delivery leaves us with a seed of hope.”
The Youth Jury Award, “selected by some of the U.K.’s most passionate young documentary lovers,” was presented to Anhell69, directed by Theo Montoya. In its citation, the jury said of the film, “It is boundary breaking, it is unique, it’s visually stunning and genre defying. The film is an act of resistance against documentary conventions.”
At the Sheffield DocFest awards ceremony several winners of pitch competitions were revealed, including the recipient of The Whickers Pitch, a film and TV funding award that is one of the most lucrative honors in the documentary field. The award of £100,000 went to Women of My Life, directed by Zahraa Ghandour. Her pitch made clear the personal dimensions of the story:
“When Zahraa was nine years old,” a description of the film says, “she witnessed her best friend Noor being dragged away by her family, never to be seen again. This powerful and compelling investigation into the ‘disappeared’ women and children of Iraq does not flinch from discussing the complicity of other women within the system.”
Jo Lapping, head of factual acquisitions at BBC and a Whickers Judge, said about Women of My Life: “The combination of the Zahraa’s access and personal point of view will deliver a film giving profound insights into a world and a history that is seldom seen or told.”
This is the full list of Sheffield DocFest competition winners, special mention honorees and pitch winners:
International Competition Honoring films that best display strong artistic vision and courageous storytelling. This award is Academy Award accredited.
WINNER – In the Rearview – Ukraine, Poland – Maciek Hamela – 2023 (International Premiere)
Special mention was given to Stone Town directed by Jing Guo and Dingding KE (China, 2023).
International First Feature Competition (supported by Netflix) This competition honours the future of non-fiction film and celebrates promising new talent.
WINNER – Q – USA, Lebanon – Jude Chehab – 2023 (International Premiere)
International Short Film Competition This Academy Award, BAFTA and BIFA-accredited award honors the best creative approaches in documentaries under 40 minutes.
WINNER – The Takeover – USA – Anders Hammer – 2023 (World Premiere)
Special mention was given to A Maiden Sings directed by Max Torrés Altés (Spain, 2023).
Youth Jury Award
WINNER – Anhell69 – Colombia, Romania, France, Germany – Theo Montoya – 2022 (UK Premiere)
Special mention was given to 1001 Days directed by Kethiwe Ngcobo & Chloe White (UK, South Africa, 2023).
Tim Hetherington Award (presented in association with Dogwoof) Photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was committed to humanitarian and social concerns throughout the world. This award recognizes films that best reflect his legacy.
WINNER – 20 Days in Mariupol – Ukraine – Mstyslav Chernov – 2023 (UK Premiere)
Special mention was given to Total Trust directed by Jialing Zhang (Germany, Netherlands, 2023).
International Alternate Realities Competition This programme combines advances in technology with creativity and imagination to find new ways of exploring non-fiction.
WINNER – The Man Who Couldn’t Leave – Artist: Singing Chen (UK Premiere)
Special mentions were given to Surfacing, by Rosa Rossella Schillaci (Italy, Portugal, 2022) and Within Touching Distance, produced by ZU-UK (UK, 2023).
Pitch Session Winners: Four pitch sessions took place during the festival for selected emerging directors to pitch their non-fiction projects to panels of judges.
The Whickers Pitch, Film and TV Funding Award 2023, with a prize of £100,000, went to Women of My Life, directed by Zahraa Ghandour (Karada Film, Iraq); the development prize of £20,000 went to I Want to Kill My Grandfather, co-directed by Lilyana Torres & Carlos Morales (The Life, Mexico). The award recognizes original and innovative documentary – and uses the generous legacy of its namesake, pioneering broadcaster Alan Whicker, to support emerging international directors working on their first feature-length documentaries.
Channel 4 First Cut Pitch saw five short-listed directors present and discuss a 3-minute micro-documentary on the themed brief “Brave New World.” This was won by Catherine Harte, securing a commission from Channel 4 for their first 60-minute film, and one month of fully paid development with an indie to support the development of their idea.
BBC Storyville Development Pitch saw filmmakers invited to pitch to be part of a new development program at Sheffield DocFest. The selected finalists shared new ideas for consideration for the prize pot of £3000, which was won by With Woman by Mia Harvey and Ayo Akinwolere and Kashpirovsky by Lukasz Konopa.
The Podcast Pitch first prize (£5000) went to Time, Paper, Bone by Catherine Boulle and Bongani Kona and the second prize (£2000) went to Breathing Lyrically by Taqwa Sadiq. The winners were chosen for being the most creative and promising pitches, and the prizes were funded by the Whickers foundation.
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