Productions eligible for this category include documentaries, docudramas or fiction films featuring, for example, the history of music or biographies of musicians, singers, and composers.
Shortlisted
STAX: Soulsville U.S.A.
Director:
Jamila Wignot
Producer(s):
Jamila Wignot, Producer /Kara Elverson, Producer/Ezra Edelman, EP/ Caroline Waterlow, EP/Nigel Sinclair, EP /Nicholas Ferrall, EP
Footage Archive Researcher:
Deannie Parker
Footage Archive Producer:
Ines Farag
Associate Archival Producer:
Willy Fines
Archival Sources:
Reelin' in the Years / Historic Films / WMC Action News 5 in Memphis, TN / NBC News Archive / The Stax Museum
Production Company:
Laylow Pictures / Whitehorse Pictures
Country of Production:
United States
Original Release:
2024
Synopsis
STAX: Soulsville USA is an epic series that chronicles the full story of Stax Records, an underdog record label comprised of Black and white collaborators who ushered in the groundbreaking soul music of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, The Staple Singers, Sam & Dave and many others that defined a generation. Driven by instinct and defying the notion that Black artists needed to be “made marketable,” the Memphis-based label went from ultimate outsider to one of the most influential producers of Black music. Through a deeply researched and sweeping reexamination, the series reveals the confluence of forces – race, geography and musical traditions as well as the cutthroat world of the recording industry – that shaped the Stax spirit and determined its destiny. The series centers the first person voices of many of the individuals who lived the Stax experience while situating them within the political backdrop in which it unfolded. This a quintessentially American story of an audacious group of individuals who dared to make their own music on their own terms creating an institution that has continued to define our culture long after the label itself has gone.
Becoming Madonna
Director:
Michael Ogden
Producer(s):
Eliana Capitani / Tina Flintoff / Nick Hornby / Patrick Culhane
Footage Archive Producer:
Helen Carr
Archival Sources:
Fox Archives / Getty Images (NBC News, BBC Motion Gallery, WNBC) / LOLA Clips (ABC Australia, Nine) / Kinolibrary / CBS Media Ventures
Production Company:
Optomen Television
Country of Production:
United Kingdom
Original Release:
2024
Synopsis
Through exclusive interviews, unheard tapes, and rare and never-before-seen archive footage, this immersive, archive-driven feature documentary tells the compelling story of how Madonna became the most powerful woman in pop.
From the devastating loss of her devoutly Catholic mother to cancer at age five to her arrival in New York at nineteen as a penniless dancer from Michigan in 1978, Madonna knew she was destined for greatness but wasn’t sure exactly how.
Set against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and music industry misogyny of the 1980s, the film charts Madonna’s astonishing transformation from Midwest teen into a superhuman champion of sexual liberation for young women and the gay community.
It reveals how the loss of close friends to the AIDS pandemic emboldened her message of creative freedom, no matter the cost.
This is the story of the events that shaped Madonna and how she, in turn, shaped the world.
Kurt Cobain: Moments That Shook Music
Director:
John Osborne
Producer(s):
John Osborne
Footage Archive Producer:
Libby Hopfauf
Archival Sources:
Seattle Municipal Archives / Public Access Television Seattle / King 5 / Kiro TV / Komo TV
Production Company:
Touchdown Films
Country of Production:
United Kingdom
Original Release:
2024
Synopsis
Told exclusively through archive material, this primetime BBC TWO documentary marked the 30th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death by using powerful and unseen archive footage to demystify the tragic moment when the Nirvana frontman took his own life.
One of musical history’s most shocking stories is told as never before, as footage captured by local fans in Seattle and raw material from news crews reporting at the time are woven together, immersing the viewers in the events that unfolded, as they happened.
Through the archive, we see the poignant reaction from the electrician who discovered Kurt’s body when installing a security system at his Seattle home; statements from police at the scene; the chaos, confusion and devastation caught on video by his fans – including the moment a tape recording of an emotional Courtney Love reading her late husband’s final letter was played out to a crowd of thousands at a vigil in Seattle; and a revealing interview with Cobain himself.
One to One: John & Yoko
Director:
Kevin Macdonald
Producer(s):
Peter Worsley / Melissa Morton-Hicks / Lizzy Webster
Footage Archive Researcher:
Al Hopkins / Emma Dempsey / James McDonald for Shanakee
Footage Archive Producer:
Hannah Ratcliffe for Shanakee
Archival Sources:
Lennon / Ono Estate / Geraldo Rivera / NBC News Archive / Revoir / CBS News
Production Company:
Mercury Studios / KGB Films / Plan B / Shanakee
Country of Production:
United Kingdom / United States
Original Release:
2024
Synopsis
This documentary depicts the art and activism of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1972, specifically from their move to New York from England up to the benefit concert they put on in Madison Square Garden for children who had endured horrific conditions at Willowbrook School.
The film also includes important moments in their personal lives during this time and reconstructs what the couple would have been watching on TV, which informed their changing worldview. According to John, the TV served as his “window on the world”. From hard-hitting news reports to entertainment shows, commercials and televangelists, this documentary threads it all together showing how their interests and inspirations led them to create their art and inspire change.
The film is constructed through extensive montage, which is often fast-paced and deliberately jarring, illustrating the cultural and political tensions of the era. When John and Yoko see an uncensored report of the appalling conditions at Willowbrook School, an institution for children with additional needs, they are motivated to host a concert to raise money for their care. Using restored footage supplied by the Lennon Estate, the film ends on a riotously hopeful rendition of Give Peace a Chance.
Onomatopee Films / Warboys Films / BALDR Film / Zapomatik
Country of Production:
Belgium / France / Netherlands
Original Release:
2024
Synopsis
Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba.
