2026 FOCAL International Awards Shortlisted Nominees
The FOCAL Awards celebrate three areas – production, restoration and preservation, and people. All our production categories celebrate the very best use of footage within the production, programme or project.
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2026 Best Use of Footage in a History Feature
For single feature-length productions—60 minutes or longer—such as documentaries or docudramas that deal with historical events, people, or issues.
Shortlisted
Deaf President Now!
Director:
Nyle DiMarco / Davis Guggenheim
Producer(s):
Nyle DiMarco / Davis Guggenheim / Amanda Rohlke / Jonathan King / Michael Harte / Laurene Powell Jobs
Footage Archive Researcher:
Anna Louie / Crosley Wong / Mike Nichols
Footage Archive Producer:
Austin Wilkin / Mariah Yamamoto
Archival Sources:
Gallaudet University / Jeff Beatty & Yoon Lee / ABC News VideoSource / CNN Archive / Personal Archives of Tim Rarus, Bridgetta Bourne, Greg Hlibok, Jerry Covell, and King Jordan.
Production Company:
Apple TV / Concordia Studio
Country of Production:
United States
Original Release:
2025
Synopsis
The story of the greatest civil rights movement most people have never heard of.
“Deaf President Now!” recounts the eight days of historic protests held at Gallaudet University in 1988 after the school’s board of trustees appointed a hearing president over several very qualified Deaf candidates. After a week of rallies, boycotts and protests, the students of Gallaudet University triumph as the hearing president resigns and beloved dean Dr. I. King Jordan becomes the university’s first Deaf president. The protests marked a pivotal moment in civil rights history, with an impact that extended well beyond the Gallaudet campus, and paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). “Deaf President Now!” features exclusive interviews with the five key figures of the movement, including the Gallaudet Four — Jerry Covell, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Tim Rarus and Greg Hlibok — alongside I. King Jordan, as well as archival and scripted elements. The film also incorporates an experimental narrative approach called Deaf Point of View, using impressionistic visual photography and intricate sound design to thrust the audience into the Deaf experience.
True North
Director:
Michèle Stephenson
Producer(s):
Leslie Norville
Footage Archive Researcher:
João Vitor Corrêa / Jalana Lewis / Stefanie McCarrol / Valérie Lessard / Ayan Tani
Footage Archive Producer:
Juan Bello
Archival Sources:
National Film Board of Canada / Canadian Broadcasting Corporation / Archives Radio-Canada / Bell Media / British Pathé
Production Company:
Studio 112 Inc. / Revolution Remix LLC
Country of Production:
Canada / United States
Original Release:
2025
Synopsis
Set against 1960s Montreal, TRUE NORTH uncovers two pivotal yet underrecognized events the Congress of Black Writers and the Sir George Williams Affair, revealing the city as a crucial nexus in the global Black liberation movement. Drawing on never-before-seen archival footage and intimate first-person testimonies, the film revisits a charged era of resistance, when Black students and activists confronted institutional racism and sparked reverberations far beyond Canada.
Taking a hemispheric view of Black resistance, TRUE NORTH connects struggles across the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States, tracing shared legacies of colonialism, migration, and state violence. At its core are the voices of elders who lived this history and whose contributions have too often been erased. Their stories ground the film with clarity and urgency, offering a rare, lived perspective on a transformative moment.
Visually striking and emotionally resonant, TRUE NORTH is both a love letter to 1960s Montreal and a radical reimagining of its place in history. Through bold artistry and rigorous truth-telling, the film becomes an act of remembrance and a call to action, inviting new generations into an immersive experience whose lessons remain urgent, alive, and unfinished. It repositions Montreal as central, not peripheral, to Black internationalist histories.
Ghana National Film Archive / Associated Press / British Pathé / Reuters / British Film Institute
Production Company:
Breakwater Studios / Higher Ground Media
Country of Production:
United States
Original Release:
2025
Synopsis
From Oscar®-winning director Ben Proudfoot, THE EYES OF GHANA is a stunning feature documentary following 93-year-old documentarian Chris Hesse—personal cinematographer to forgotten African icon Kwame Nkrumah—as he races against blindness and time to rescue and repatriate a secret trove of over 1,000 films that captured the birth of African independence in the fifties and sixties. Yet unseen by the public, these films may not only rewrite Ghanaian and African history—but world history itself.
