At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking takes home the top prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest

17.06.2024 – Maja Novaković’s exploration of an isolated man won the Grand Jury Prize, while the British film The Boy and the Suit of Lights won the Feature I Award

Director Maja Novaković accepted her award for At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking

The 31st edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest came to a close on Sunday, with the festival, based in the north of England, revealing its winners at its traditional awards ceremony.

He was awarded the Grand Prize of the Jury for the International Competition Maja Novakovićhis At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking (+See also:
movie review
film profile) (Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina). The film is a meditation on isolation and loss, and the jury commented: “With cinematic excellence, the director slowly reveals a story of isolation and trauma in a landscape of beauty but deep historical scars. An emerging director to watch.”

The jury consisted of Heather Haynes (director of festival programming, Hot Docs), Mohamed Said Ouma (DocA-Documentary Africa executive director) and award-winning director Havana mark.

In the International First Feature Film Competition, the Grand Jury Prize is back The Boy and the Suit of Lights (+See also:
movie review
tow
film profile) (Great Britain) by Inma De Reyes, which follows a boy living in a small Spanish town as he faces pressure from his family to become a professional bullfighter. The judges said: “We chose the winning film for its visually stunning reflection on culture and society, told through the journey of a boy finding his way to manhood. It sparks an inner conversation, challenging our ideas about the modern world versus fading traditions and beliefs.” He received a special mention Silent men of Duncan Cowles (UK): The jury “was impressed by the vulnerable approach to a sensitive subject, told in a fresh, open, even humorous tone”.

The jury members of the International Feature Film Competition were Liselotte Verbugge (CEO, Film Harbour), Christine Barford (founder of Nordland Pictures) and Diego Pino Anguita (executive director of the Documentary Corporation of Chile).

The Tim Hetherington Award was awarded to him No other land (+See also:
movie review
interview: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
film profile) of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal (Palestine/Norway). The award recognizes the films and filmmakers that best reflect the legacy of photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington. The jury said: “Two soldiers, armed and masked, violently grab an unarmed man as a voice shouts: ‘I’m filming you.’ This is not the only time these words are spoken. We hear them again as a squadron of soldiers drags the journalist and filmmaker to the ground, yanking him from his camera. Journalistic documents are witnesses to what we must not forget, erase or rewrite. This is a powerful collaboration between journalists from opposite sides of a political abyss coming together to tell the story of Masafer Yatta’s ongoing destruction in Palestine.”

The jurors for the Tim Hetherington Award were Joan Parsons (Head of Culture and Arts for Queen’s University Belfast), award-winning producer and founder of Kenya-based We Are Not the Machine Tony Kamauand Maria Tsypiashchuk (Ukrainian lawyer, partnership manager of the Ukrainian War Archive).

In addition, three pitch sessions were held during the festival for selected emerging filmmakers to present their non-fiction projects to the juries. The Whickers Pitch, Film & TV Funding Award, with a prize of £100,000, has been awarded The Camels of the Sea of Vikram Singh (India), and the Development Award of £20,000 was awarded Reply of Chouwa Liang (China).

The judging company composed Jane Mott (The Whickers), Niño Zambrano River (Sheffield Doc/Fest), David Green (editor and director), Fozia Khan (Head of Unscripted at Amazon Studios UK), Ibrahim Nash’at (achiever and winner of the 2023 Whickers Award) and Robin Smith (Blue Ice Docs Inc).

Channel 4’s First Cut Pitch saw five shortlisted filmmakers present and discuss a three-minute micro-documentary on the theme of ‘Change’. This was won by Helen Waddellwho thus secured a commission from Channel 4 for their first 60-minute film and a month of fully paid development with an indie to support the development of their idea.

The list of award winners for the 2024 edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest is as follows:

International competition

Grand Jury Prize
At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking (+See also:
movie review
film profile) – Maja Novaković (Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Special mention
The Mother City – Miki Redelinghuys, Pearlie Joubert (South Africa)

International primary feature film competition

Grand Jury Prize
The Boy and the Suit of Lights (+See also:
movie review
tow
film profile) – Inma De Reyes (Great Britain)
Special mention
Silent men – Duncan Cowles (Great Britain)

International Short Film Competition

Grand Jury Prize
FLORA – José Cardoso (South Africa/Ecuador)
Special mention
Palestine dancing – Lamees Almakkawy (Great Britain)

The Tim Hetherington Award
No other land (+See also:
movie review
interview: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
film profile) – Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal (Palestine/Norway)

International virtual reality competition
Perinatal Dreaming. Understanding the country – Marianne Wobcke, Volker Keuchelmeister, Lucia Barrera (Australia)

Youth Jury Award
HAIYU – Rebel singer Mariem Hassan and the Struggle for a Free Western Sahara – Alex Veitch, Brahim B Ali, Mohamedsalem Uered, Anna Klara Åhrén (Sweden/Western Sahara)
Special mention
Life on the edge – Johnny Langenheim, Sebastian Feehan (Greenland/Great Britain)

2024 Presentation Session Winners
The Camels of the Sea – Vikram Singh (India)
Reply – Chouwa Liang (China)
Special mention
Highness and Excellence – Sajad Imani (Iran)

Podcast Pitch First Prize
Rewriting the narrative – Christina Hardinge (Great Britain)

Podcast Pitch Award II
Degenerate – Matt Durai (Malaysia)