Final nominations for the 2018 Grierson Awards announced

The final nominations for the 2018 Grierson Awards have been announced, and we are pleased to report that Directors UK members are well-represented in almost every category. 

The Best Single Documentary – Domestic category is composed entirely of works by Directors UK members, Being Blacker by Molly Dineen and Chris Packham: Asperger’s and Me by Charlie Russell are joined by Kingdom of Us by Lucy Cohen and Raped: My Story, from Catey Sexton. Meanwhile, in the Best Single Documentary – International category, members Tom Dumican and Gethin Aldous (along with co-director Jairus McLeary) are nominated for No Greater Law and Storyville:  The Work - Four Days to Redemption respectively. The category is also contested by Yance Ford’s Strong Island and Bryan Fogel’s Icarus. 

The category for Best Current Affairs Documentary also features several Directors UK members. The Fight for Mosul, directed by members Olivier Sarbil and James Jones, is alongside Lucy Cohen’s second nomination for Raped: My Story. Panorama:  Undercover - Britain’s Immigration Secrets (Joe Plomin) and Myanmar’s Killing Fields (Production Team) complete the category. The Best Arts or Music Documentary selection sees members Teresa Griffiths and Francis Hanly nominated for Leonora Carrington - The Lost Surrealist and Stanley and His Daughters respectively. Glen Milner’s Handmade in Hull and David Shulman’s Basquiat: Rage to Riches also make the cut. 

We see another clean sweep of Directors UK members in the Best Science Documentary and Best Natural History Documentary categories. In Science, Mike Birkhead and Beth Jones are chosen for Attenborough’s Wonder of Eggs; Graeme McAulay for Bring Me Back To Life; Graham Booth for One Strange Rock and Charlie Russell for the second nomination of Chris Packham: Asperger’s and Me. In Natural History, Mike Birkhead and Beth Jones are again nominated – this time for H is for Hawk: A New Chapter. Members Martin Dohrn and Joe Loncraine are picked for Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants: Terra Mater, and Tom Currie features for Sue Perkins and the Chimp Sanctuary. The production team for Blue Planet II, which featured Directors UK members, also earns a nomination. 

But that’s not all – the Best Documentary Series section also has Directors UK members behind the camera of all four nominated programmes. 24 Hours in Police Custody, directed by members Tom Barrow and Liz Hazell, is nominated alongside Hospital, whose Production Team (featuring Directors UK members) is credited as director. The category also features Love & Hate Crime, directed by Ben Steele and Stephen: The Murder That Changed A Nation by James Rogan.

Best Constructed Documentary Series features is packed out with talent, with the Production Team – featuring more Directors UK members — behind SAS: Who Dares Wins among the nominees. They are joined by members Marcus English, Emile Nawagamuwa and Danny Fildes for Rich House Poor House, member Benjamin Leigh for Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds and the Production Team, again featuring our members, of A House Through Time. The same Team is nominated in the Best Historical Documentary category, for episode two of A House Through Time. Member James Rogan is nominated again for Stephen: The Murder That Changed A Nation and members Daniel Bogado, Natasha Zinni and Barnaby Peel are featured for Trump: An American Dream - Episode 3. The Funeral Murders, directed by Vanessa Engle, completes the category. 

Best Entertaining Documentary sees even more great member-directed programmes earn some recognition: Southan Morris is nominated for Celebrity Hunted, Will Yapp for The Real Full Monty, and Adam Hopkins for Valley Cops: I just Hope He Hasn’t Done It, with Vaishall Sinha’s Ask the Sexpert also featuring. Best Cinema Documentary, meanwhile, sees two Directors UK members nominated for the second time: Lucy Cohen for Kingdom of Us and Gethin Aldous (alongside Jairus McLeary) for The Work. The Production Team behind The Last Men in Aleppo and Matthew Heineman, director of City of Ghosts, also receive nominations.

Congratulations to all of this year’s final nominees. Year after year the Grierson nominations show the strength and depth of factual filmmaking talent, both amongst our membership and in the wider industry. You can read the full list of nominees and categories here. 

The winners in each category will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Susan Calman on November 5th.