This year we are delighted to host the 2023 FOCAL Awards at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms on June 15th, we hope you can join us. Congratulations to all the shortlisted nominees.
2025 shortlisted nominations
Shouting Down Midnight
Director:
Gretchen Stoeltje
Producer(s):
Richard Linklater
Footage Archive Producer:
Susanne Mason
Archival Sources:
The Texas Senate, The Texas Tribune, Dorothy Fadiman / Concentric Media, Amy Bench, Kind Motion Pictures
Production Company:
TIME Studios, Day Zero, Sugar23, Mainstay, MSNBC Films
Country of Production:
United States
Synopsis
In 2013, women shared real stories to help Texas State Senator Wendy Davis filibuster in defense of Texas women’s access to reproductive healthcare. As the capitol filled to capacity for the first time in its history, and people all over the world tuned in, Sen. Davis read testimony from women strongly opposed to the bill which would effectively force draconian, pre-Roe v. Wade conditions on women again. The bill ultimately passed, but not before Texas women - and the men who love them - made it clear that day that the Texas legislature had gone too far.
Forcing debate on the bill provided citizens a view of the process and a role in demanding accountability from their elected representatives. People were activated. Lives were transformed. History was made.
SHOUTING DOWN MIDNIGHT is a standalone production acquired for THE TURNING POINT series.
La Generazione Perduta
Director:
Marco Turco
Producer(s):
Francesco Virga
Archive Producer/ Researcher:
Marco Turco, Romilda Boffano, Laura Demetri
Archival Sources:
Home Movies, Studio Azzurro, Radiotelevisione Svizzera, CSC - Archivio Nazionale Cinema D'Impresa, Istituto Luce Cinecittà
Production Company:
MIR Cinematografica, Luce Cinecittà
Country of Production:
Italy
Synopsis
In the 70’s Italy is submerged by heroin. Carlo Rivolta, journalist among the most receptive of his generation, is among the first to describe this phenomenon from a new newspaper’s columns, “Repubblica”. He catches on the dynamics regulating the traffic. Puts the use in relation to the decline of the collective movements born from the revolution of 68’. He’s the voice of a free-falling generation. But awareness does not spare him.
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story
Director:
Rowan Deacon
Producer(s):
Katie Hindley
Footage Archive Producer:
Peter Scott
Archival Sources:
BBC Motion Gallery / Getty Images, ITV Archive, Channel 4 / Screenocean, STV, Yorkshire Film Archive
Production Company:
72 Films
Country of Production:
United Kingdom
Synopsis
Jimmy Savile, a hugely famous British television and radio personality who rose to prominence in a career spanning decades in the entertainment industry. He had raised millions for charity, been knighted by the Queen and achieved national treasure status by the time he died on the 29th October 2011. His funeral was broadcast live on the BBC.
Since his death, independent investigations and those made by Scotland Yard uncovered that Savile had been a prolific and predatory sex offender, abusing hundreds of people, some as young as 5. To date, more than 450 allegations of sexual assault and abuse have been made against him.
From award winning company 72 films, the documentary examines, through extensive archive footage, Savile’s relationship with the British people, the establishment, the Royal Family and the media to understand how he managed to fool an entire nation for so long.
The Princess
Director:
Ed Perkins
Producer(s):
Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn
Archive Researcher/ Producer:
Sam Dywer, Gordon King
Archival Sources:
Getty (included BBC, ITN News, Sky News and NBC), ITV, AP Archive, Screenocean, ABC News
Production Company:
Lightbox
Country of Production:
United Kingdom
Synopsis
The Princess tells the story of Diana, Princess of Wales, exclusively through contemporaneous archival material.
The fractured relationship that followed Charles and Diana’s seemingly fairy-tale public
courtship and wedding in the early 1980s, the birth of two heirs to the throne, and Diana’s tragic and untimely death in 1997, were tabloid fodder for nearly two decades and made daily headlines. THE PRINCESS aims to reframe this story by drawing solely from archival audio and video footage to take audiences back to these era-defining events as they happened, and in doing so, allows the narrative to unfold as if it were in the present. THE PRINCESS offers an account of Diana’s story and the public response to it. The film stands as both a factual reckoning and a visceral submersion into Diana’s life in the constant, overpowering, and often intrusive glare of the media spotlight.
Through archival material, including audio of the public response to these events, the film also provides a reflection of society at the time. Audiences see how the overwhelming adoration, but also intense scrutiny of Diana’s every move and the constant judgement of her character, reveal the public’s own preoccupations, fears, aspirations and desires.
Fire of Love
Director:
Sara Dosa
Producer(s):
Sara Dosa, Shane Boris, Ina Fichman
Footage Archive Producer:
Nancy Marcotte
Archival Sources:
Images de L’Est, l’INA, Sonuma, RTS, NBC Japanese Broadcaster
Production Company:
National Geographic Documentary Films, Sandbox Films Production, Intuitive Pictures, Cottage M Production
Country of Production:
United States
Synopsis
From National Geographic Documentary Films comes the extraordinary love story of intrepid
French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died just as explosively as they lived —
capturing the most spectacular imagery ever recorded of their greatest passion: volcanoes.
