Sheffield DocFest Reveals 2024 Winners | News

At the door of the house that will come knocking, The Boy And The Suit Of Lights and No other land were the main winners at this year’s Sheffield DocFest.

The festival, which took place from June 12-17, saw an increase in audience attendance of over 20% compared to 2023.

of Maja Novaković At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking won the grand jury prize for the international competition. The film is a co-production from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina that follows an elderly man living in isolation, recording the routines of his daily life in Bosnia. A special mention in this category went to the South African documentary Mother City, from directors Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert.

British film by Inma de Reyes The Boy And The Suit Of Lights won the grand jury prize of the international feature film competition. The film follows a boy who dreams of being a bullfighter in Spain. Another UK film, Duncan Cowles’ film Silent menreceived a special mention.

No other land has added Sheffield’s Tim Hetherington Award to its list of wins after taking home the Documentary Award and the Panorama Audience Award at this year’s Berlinale.

The doc is directed by the Palestinian-Israeli team of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal and is a Palestine-Norway co-production. It tells the story of a Palestinian activist’s fight against the destruction of his community. Dogwoof will release the film in the UK-Ireland later this year.

The Tim Hetherington Award recognizes the work of a film and director that best reflects the legacy of British photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington.

Australian work Perinatal Dreaming. Understanding the country won the international virtual reality competition, while Haiyu – Rebel singer Mariem Hassan and the fight for a free Western Sahara took home the youth jury award.

The winner of the big pitch session was the Indian doctor The Camels of the Seadirected by Vikram Singh and which won £100,000, while the £20,000 development prize went to the Chinese film Replydirected by Chouwa Liang.

The inaugural Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Co-Production Award for the Sheffield DocFest MeetMarket, with a $15,000 prize, went to Bea Wangondu and Andrew H. Brown’s Kikuyu Land. The film unfolds as a journalist in Nairobi investigates a civil petition against the British Crown and the Kenyan tea industry and stumbles upon the hidden secrets of her own family.