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The shortlist for the 2005 Grierson Awards has been agreed by the Grierson Trust and reviewers. They have selected 67 entries in eight categories to go forward to the next stage in the competition when the shortlisted films will be seen by independent panels of judges who will select four films in each category to be nominated for the final awards. The winners will be announced at the Grierson Awards ceremony which will take place at the Royal Institution, London on Sunday, 27 November 2005 and will be hosted Michael Portillo.

The shortlisted films are:
BEST DOCUMENTARY ON A CONTEMPORARY ISSUE
Cocaine: Leo and Ze - episode 2

(Angus Macqueen for October Films/Channel 4)
Jamie’s School Dinners - episode 1

(Fresh One Productions/Channel 4)
Lin and Ralph: A Love Story

(Marilyn Gaunt for Stampede/Factotum Films/ITV1)
MacIntyre’s Underworld: Gangster

(Donal MacIntyre for Extreme Production/five)
The Power of Nightmares - Baby It’s Cold Outside

(Adam Curtis for BBC Two)
The Secret Agent

(Karen Wightman for BBC One)
Sisters in Law

(Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi for Vixen Films)
Storyville: The Liberace of Baghdad

(Sean McAllister for Tenfoot Films & Team Production)

BEST DOCUMENTARY ON THE ARTS
Animation Nation - The Art of Persuasion

(Meryn Threadgould, Alastair Laurence, Tuppence St for BBC Four)
Britten’s Children

(John Bridcut for Mentorn/BBC Two)
The Gospel Truth?

(Christopher Walker for Eyeline Media/Channel 4)
Here’s a Piano I Prepared Earlier: Experimental Music in the 1960s

(Ned Parker for Associatedrediffusion Television Productions/BBC Four)
Holocaust - A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz

(James Kent for BBC Two)
The New Shock of the New

(James Runcie for Oxford Film & Television/BBC Two)
Shadowing the Third Man

(Frederick Baker for Silverapples Media/Media Europa)
South Bank Show - Robert Frank

(Gerald Fox for Granada Arts/ITV1)
The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody

(Carl Johnston for BBC Three)

BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
Auschwitz: The Nazis & The ‘Final Solution’ - episode 1 ‘Surprising Beginnings’

(Detlef Siebert, Dominic Sutherland for BBC Two/KCET)
The Brighton Bomb

(Sandy Smith for BBC One)
D-Day: the Ultimate Conflict

(Mark Lewis for Windfall/five)
Grandchild of the Holocaust

(Lorraine Charker-Phillips for BBC One)
The Great British Asian Invasion

(Janice Sutherland for Juniper/Channel 4)
Heysel 1985 - Requiem for a Cup Final

(Lode Desmet for Periscope/BBC One)
The Russian Revolution in Colour

(Ian Lilley for IWC Media/five)
Secrets of the Old Testament

(Michael Attwell and Thierry Ragobert for MAP TV with Cabirira Films & SZ Productions/five)
Virtual History - The Secret Plot to Kill Hitler

(David McNab for Tiger Aspect/Discovery Channel)

BEST DOCUMENTARY ON SCIENCE OR THE NATURAL WORLD
British Isles: A Natural History Prog 3 - Ice Age

(Dan Tapster and Mary Colwell for BBC One)
Edge of Life - Who Should Get the Transplant

(Page Shepherd for BBC Two)
The Heart of a Lioness

(Saba Douglas-Hamilton for ORTV/Animal Planet)
John Lydon’s Shark Attack

(Tim Knight for Objective/five)
Malaria: Fever Road

(Kevin Hull for Films of Record/BBC Two)
The Natural World: Mississippi - Tales of the Last River Rat

(Andrew Graham Brown for GB Films Ltd/BBC Two)
The Wave That Shook the World

(Lara Acaster, Martin Williams, Alex Williamson for Pioneer Productions/Channel 4)

MOST ENTERTAINING DOCUMENTARY
The Apprentice - episode 10

(Peter Moore, Series Editor for Mark Burnett Productions/Talkback/BBC Two)
Bye Bye Happiness

(Oli Barry for Talkback Productions/BBC Three)
Himalaya with Michael Palin - Prog 1 - North by Northwest

(Roger Mills for Prominent Television/BBC One)
The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon - Programme 1 - Life and Times

(Annabel Hobley for BBC Two)
ONE life: Make Me A Man Again

(Todd Austin for BBC One)
Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares - episode 2

(Christine Hall for Optomen Television/Channel 4)
Remember the Secret Policeman’s Ball?

(Margy Kinmonth for Films of Record/BBC Four)
Why Men Wear Frocks

(Neil Crombie for Twofour Productions/Channel 4)

BEST DRAMA DOCUMENTARY
Agatha Christie - A Life in Pictures

(Richard Curson Smith for Wall to Wall/BBC Two)
Born With Two Mothers

(Ian Duncan for Windfall Films/Channel 4)
Cherished

(Robin Sheppard for BBC One)
D-Day

(Richard Dale for Dangerous Films/BBC One)
The Government Inspector

(Peter Kosminsky for Mentorn/Channel 4)
Hamburg Cell

(Antonia Bird for Mentorn/Channel 4)
In Praise of Hardcore - Kenneth Tynan

(Chris Durlacher for BBC Four)
Planespotting

(Chris Menaul for Granada/ITV1)

BEST INTERNATIONAL CINEMA DOCUMENTARY
Krooli/The Crawl

(P V Lehtinen for MRP Matila Rohr Productions)
Metallica Some Kind of Monster

(Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky)
My Architect

(Nathaniel Kahn)
Riot On!

(Kim Finn for Hakalax Entertainment)
Storyville: The Control Room

(Jehane Noujam for TV2 Denmark/BBC Two)
Storyville: Why We Fight

(Eugene Jarecki for Charlotte Street Films/BBC Four)
Super Size Me

(Morgan Spurlock)
The Three Rooms of Melancholia

(Pirjo Honkasalo for Millennium Films Ltd)

BEST NEWCOMER
The Concrete Revolution

(Xiaolu Guo, Orchid Films)
Fountain of Youth

(Daniel Vernon, National Film and Television School)
A Good Man... is hard to find

(Greg Wise for West Park Pictures/BBC Two)
The Last Men Standing

(Sasha Maja Djurkovic, National Film and Television School)
McLibel

(Franny Armstrong for Spanner Films/BBC Four)
My Brother My Enemy

(Masood Khan and Kamalijeet Negi, National Film and Television School)
Rooted

(Kapwani Kiwanga for Lion Televisio/Scottish TV)
Send Me Somewhere Special

(Darren Hercher for Fulcrum TV/BBC Three)
Storyville: The Importance of Being Elegant

(George Amponsah, Cosima Spender for October Films/Dominant 7/BBC Two)
Visit Palestine

(Katie Barlow)

TRUSTEES’ AWARD
The Grierson Trust will also present the Trustees’ Award, which recognises an outstanding contribution to the art or craft of the Documentary.

Full details of all the shortlisted films can be found on the Grierson Trust’s website at www.griersontrust.org.

Published on www.britfilms.com August 1, 2005

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