This year we are delighted to host the 2024 FOCAL Awards at the Church House Westminster on June 20th, we hope you can join us. Congratulations to all the shortlisted nominees.
2024 shortlisted nominations
U-96, la véritable histoire de «DAS BOOT» / U-96, THE TRUE STORY OF ‘DAS BOOT’
Director:
Raphaël Millet
Producer(s):
Nocturnes Productions / Girelle Production / ECPAD / Phish Communications
Footage Archive Researcher:
Raphaël Millet
Footage Archive Producer:
ECPAD
Archival Sources:
ECPAD / BUCHHEIM MUSEUM DER PHANTASIE / BAVARIA MEDIA GmbH / Private colelctions of Luc Braeuer, Gerrit Reichert, Jost Vacano, Enrique Lehmann-Willenbrock / Colin Grimshaw
Production Company:
Nocturnes Productions / Girelle Production / ECPAD / Phish Communications
Country of Production:
France / Singapore
Original Release:
2023
Synopsis
The international success of the film Das Boot by Wolfgang Petersen made the U-96 one of the most famous submarines in cinematic history. But the true story of one of Hitler’s most fearsome U-boats and its crew goes far beyond fiction. For the first time, this documentary sheds light on the reality behind the fiction through exclusive interviews with the makers and actors of Das Boot, as well as the last survivors of the time. In doing so, this documentary explores how Hitler’s propaganda images may have influenced the visual and narrative force of Das Boot.
Obsessed with Light
Director:
Sabine Krayenbühl / Zeva Oelbaum
Producer(s):
Zeva Oelbaum / Sabine Krayenbühl
Footage Archive Researcher:
Lewanne Jones / Jennifer Latham
Footage Archive Producer:
Judy Aley
Archival Sources:
EYE Museum / Gaumont / University of South Carolina / Lobster / BFI
Production Company:
Between the Rivers Productions / ARTE / ZDF / YUZU Productions
Country of Production:
USA / France / Germany
Original Release:
2023
Synopsis
"Obsessed with Light" is a meditation on light and the enduring obsession to create. It is about a trailblazer who disrupted the prevailing notions of dance and the imagined limits of the human body.
The film pulls back the curtain on Loïe Fuller, a wildly original performer who revolutionized the visual culture of the early 20th century. The American creator of modern dance, Fuller (1862–1928) invented a completely new kind of spectacle which combined dance, fabric and movement. She pioneered the ingenious use of electricity for the stage, even building a glass floor so she could be lit from below. Fuller shot to international stardom after performing at the Folies Bergère in Paris in 1892. She inspired some of the most important artists and thinkers of her era including Auguste Rodin, James Whistler, Stéphane Mallarmé and W.B.Yeats.
Creating a dialogue between the past and the present, our film delves into the astonishing influence Fuller's work has on contemporary artists like Taylor Swift, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bill T. Jones, Shakira and William Kentridge, among others. In the process, the film explores the creative process and uncovers commonalities that connect these luminaries to Fuller and to each other.
Stasi FC
Director:
Daniel Gordon / Arne Birkenstock / Zakaria Rahmani
Producer(s):
Erik Winker
Footage Archive Researcher:
Vanessa Christoffers-Trinks
Footage Archive Producer:
Stephen Maier
Archival Sources:
Progress / Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (DRA) / Bundesarchiv / Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv / Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) via RBB Media / ZDF via ZDF Studios
Production Company:
Corso Films / Fruitmarket / Phiphen Pictures / Embankment Films
Country of Production:
Germany / USA / UK
Original Release:
2023
Synopsis
Dresden, 1978: A musty-smelling locker room. The Dynamo Dresden players celebrate their outstanding victory in the GDR championship. But their laughter stops when Erich Mielke storms in. He has not come to congratulate them, but to make it clear that this will be the last championship celebration for the popular club for the time being. From now on, his team, BFC Dynamo Berlin, would take over the GDR league. And so it was: in the following ten years, Erich Mielke's favourite club won ten championships with the help of dubious refereeing decisions, forced player transfers and cunning manipulation. The Stasi's influence on the national football league - which is said to have triggered a government crisis - even went so far as to plot the murder of an East German footballer who had gone to the West. For football fans in East Germany, the choice of their favourite club was often also a political statement and therefore had far greater significance than in West Germany. While BFC Dynamo received every conceivable kind of state support, it was much more difficult for Union Berlin to achieve success.
The Eichmann Trial
Director:
Elliot Levitt
Producer(s):
Elliot Levitt
Footage Archive Producer:
Jessica Berman-Bogdan
Archival Sources:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum / NBC (via Getty Images) / BBC (via Getty Images) / UCLA Film & Television Archive / CBC
Production Company:
Banality, LLC
Country of Production:
USA
Original Release:
2023
Synopsis
In 1961, history was on trial…in a trial that made history. Just 15 years after the end of World War II, the Holocaust was already considered ancient history. Barely taught in high school or college courses, the attempted extermination of the Jewish people had been largely forgotten outside of Israel. All that changed on May 11, 1960 when Adolf Eichmann, a former Nazi officer hiding in Argentina, was captured and whisked to Jerusalem to stand trial. Over the course of a nearly four-month proceeding, filmed in its entirety and broadcast worldwide on television, many learned for the first time about the extent and horror of Nazi atrocities. During Eichmann’s fiery cross-examination, a debate over disobedience to orders and the banality of evil began which continues to this day.
Told entirely through archival footage of the trial itself and contemporaneous news coverage, The Eichmann Trial documents the most shocking trial in history, and the birth of Holocaust awareness and education.
La Shoah des ghettos (Ghettos in the Holocaust)
Director:
Barbara Necek
Producer(s):
Samuel Kissous / Fabrice Frank
Footage Archive Producer:
Christine Loison
Archival Sources:
AKH - Agentur Karl Hoffkes / Yad Vashem / The Bundes Archiv / National Center Jewish (Brandeis) / Bednarski Eric
Production Company:
Pernel Media
Country of Production:
France
Original Release:
2023
Synopsis
Unlike a widely held belief, the extermination of Jews was not decided during the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. This idea had been haunting the minds of the German leaders since 1938 without having been formulated directly. The regime’s high dignitaries chose to accustom their subordinates to this funereal idea in a progressive way, first by taking a series of anti Semitic laws, then deciding to temporary lock them up in ghettos. But they went far beyond… The 1 000 ghettos will be part of the logic of the genocide. This film allows us to consider the ghettos in a new light: these spaces have been an integral part of the Holocaust and its macabre process from the beginning.
